Rexel to Cut Jobs in Spain, Italy as Economic Growth Slumps
February 10, 2012, 5:26 PM ESTBy Francois de Beaupuy
Feb. 10 (Bloomberg) -- Rexel SA, the world’s largest distributor of electrical equipment, will reduce branches and headcounts in Spain and Italy as sales plunged in nations hurt by Europe’s sovereign debt crisis.
“We introduced a restructuring plan in Spain and Itraly at the beginning of the year in order to make sure that these countries are well equiped to deal with the reality they are facing from an economic standpoint,” designated Chief Executive Officer Rudy Provoost said on a conference call today.
“Overall Europe will be flat” in terms of organic revenue growth this year, “with negative in Southern Europe, positive in Northern Europe, and the larger countries like Germany, France, the U.K. very modest around the zero line,” Provoost said. “North America in positive territory, and Asia also in positive territory but not at the growth level of last year, probably more around middle single digit growth.”
The company booked a total of 10 million euros of charges for restructurings in Italy and Spain, Chief Financial Officer Michel Favre said.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Francois de Beaupuy at fdebeaupuy@bloomberg.net
