Restructuring continues

Citation

(2000), "Restructuring continues", Pigment & Resin Technology, Vol. 29 No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/prt.2000.12929dab.001

Restructuring continues

Keywords DuPont, Organizational restructuring

As part of its strategy to maintain its position in the highly competitive global coatings industry, DuPont recently announced plans to continue restructuring its global performance coatings business to consolidate business assets and eliminate redundancies associated with the acquisition of Herberts in 1999.

The business intends to further consolidate manufacturing capacity, research and development, marketing and administrative activities located largely in Europe. These actions will result in the elimination of about 900 positions mainly through the consolidation of five more manufacturing facilities into regional, industry-focused "centers of excellence".

DuPont will assist those employees who will be affected by this consolidation through a variety of early retirement and severance programs that address local site situations.

DuPont estimates that it will realise annual pre-tax savings of about $80 million as a result of these actions.

Under the plan, subject to government notification requirements and country labour laws, DuPont Performance Coatings will shift production from five sites to other facilities. The sites at Minworth in Great Britain and Bonn in Germany are to shut down completely. Manufacturing at Mantes in France will be discontinued and parts of the works at Guntramsdorf in Austria and Cologne in Germany are to be closed. The necessary service facilities will remain at some of the sites in order to ensure continued local service for customers.