Editor's Note: This article was based on an incorrect report. Hospira did not lay off an addtional 1,500 employees; rather, the company was providing an update on it ongoing restructuring effort. No new cuts have been reported.
More layoffs in the news, but this time they're not megamerger-related. The company: Hospira. The number: 1,400 to 1,500 workers, or 10 percent of its workforce. That's the bad news. The good news: The company will save $110 million to $140 million a year by 2011, and two-thirds of the laid-off employees have already been notified.
The job cuts announcement came in an update on Hospira's ongoing restructuring, which also includes selloffs of certain bits of the business and streamlining what's left. CFO Thomas Werner told his audience at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference that any additional savings would be channeled into R&D. "We expect we can overachieve," he said (as quoted by Reuters).
Management has dubbed the restructuring "Project Fuel" because it's designed to power not only sales growth and wider margins, but deliver a big boost in productivity. The company says it's aiming to improve operating income per employee by 35 percent. EPS growth? Low to mid-double digits, percentage-wise. That's quite ambitious, no? We'll have to wait and see whether the company can overachieve as Werner expects.
- get the presentation from Hospira
- find a link to the webcast
- see the news from Reuters