Finland-based Perlos, which makes mobile phone casings for Nokia, has said it will cut 4,000 jobs, or a third of its worldwide workforce, by the end of the year to return to profitability, an AFP report said.
The AFP report quoted a statement from the company which said 'the company's board of directors has today taken the decision to launch a profitability improvement program, with the aim of considerably improving Perlos' continuing operations' operating profit.'
'Perlos has a healthy and competitive core business, but its cost structure does not correspond to the current level of net sales,' Perlos CEO and president Matti Virtanen was also quoted as saying.
Virtanen also said that the share of group sales made up by its account with Nokia, traditionally its most important customer, had fallen.
He added that the company was now looking to expand its client base, the AFP report said.
Of the 4,000 jobs that will disappear by the end of 2007 in Europe, Asia and North and South America, 1,200 will be cut in Finland alone, where production could be shut down permanently, the report added.
At the end of 2006, Perlos had 12,944 employees, including 5,715 temporary workers.