Philips Electronics NV may accelerate reorganisation in its ailing consumer electronics and components divisions, president Jan Timmer said in a rare public appearance at an investors’ symposium: Reuter reports that he said Philips had intended to reorganise these units step by step and had to be back in the black by 1994 but that the poor market situation had upset the plans and fouled up its forecasts; Timmer added that further drastic reorganisations would no doubt have a negative impact on the group’s short-term results but that they would better prepare Philips for the future; the company earlier cut 100 jobs from a total workforce of 440 at the Eindhoven head office of its components division, and said a further 70 will be transferred to another components division unit and 60 will remain in Eindhoven but will work for a different Philips division; and Philips reached agreement with its Dutch unions on measures that will save it about $100m in personnel costs in 1993 – previously agreed pay increases will be abandoned to freeze the company’s total wage costs, and it will cut 1,000 jobs via attrition.
