Mobile telecoms equipment maker Ericsson plans to close the last of its Swedish manufacturing sites as part of planned savings, cutting about 3,000 jobs, Swedish daily Svenska Dagbladet reported. Ericsson said in July that it would step up cost cuts in the face of deteriorating market conditions, having already announced a 9 billion Swedish crown ($1.1 billion) cost-cutting program in 2014. Manufacturing facilities in the cities of Boras and Kumla will be closed, the paper reported, citing internal documents. The decision ends 140 years of production in Sweden for the company that began as a producer of telegraph and telephony equipment. The planned closures are expected to save about 3 billion crowns, Svenska Dagbladet reported. Union representative Per Norlander, however, told Swedish radio that negotiations had not resulted in a final decision. "It's absolutely not certain they will be closed," Norlander said. Ericsson told Reuters on Thursday that it would reduce staff worldwide. "We have large operations in Sweden, which are not excluded," its communications department said in an email. "Our employees and, where applicable, union representatives will always be informed first." Svenska Dagbladet reported that the affected jobs are in the network products division, the company's biggest business area. Ericsson, which has about 120,000 employees worldwide including 17,000 in Sweden, has been contending with stagnant demand in developed markets where the most advanced networks have largely been built already. Source: Reuters
