Methode to Lay Off 850, Move Production
Published: 13 March 2009
by Mike Buetow
The results were also hampered by timing: there was one less week in the company's fiscal quarter ended Jan. 31 vs. a year ago.
Method, which supplies connectors and bare boards for a variety of products, but is heavily dependent on the flailing automotive sector, said it would cut 850 employees worldwide and move manufacturing operations to Mexico, Malta and China, resulting in a pretax charge of $9 million to $18 million. A plant in Morocco will be put on hold, the company said.
President and chief executive Donald W. Duda said, "We have accelerated our strategy to reduce our exposure to legacy automotive business, particularly with the Detroit automakers. These actions, once completed, are expected to reduce Methode's revenues derived from the automotive industry to less than 40% of our overall revenue base by fiscal year 2011. This is in stark contrast to automotive revenues of 75% in fiscal 2005."
