Philips announces layoffs of over 6,000 employees

The Dutch technology company Philips announced this Monday (30.jan.2023) that it will lay off another 6,000 employees. The measure is an attempt to improve income and seeks to reverse the loss of 70% of its market value after problems with the sale of breathing apparatus, according to the company. Here’s the full of the press release (222 KB, in English).

According to the note, half of the employees will be dismissed later this year, while the other 3,000 will be phased out until 2025. Philips had already communicated the dismissal of 4,000 employees in October. Adding the 2 cuts, Philips will have laid off 13% of its workforce.

The 1st wave of mass layoffs was announced after a net loss of €1.3 billion euros (R$6.8 billion at the quotation on October 24, date of publication of the results) registered in the accumulated until the 3rd quarter of 2022.

The drop was driven by requests for the return of batches of its breathing apparatus to treat sleep apnea. There was a suspicion that the foam used in the devices was toxic and could cause damage to health.

“During my first 100 days, I worked with our team on the urgent interventions needed to improve our execution and performance,” said Philips CEO Roy Jakobs. “This includes reinforcing our accountability policy and strengthening our health technology capability and talent.”completed.

According to him, the company’s new strategy will focus on “organic growth”. he said to be “trusting” that the new shares will put the company “progressively on a path of value creation with sustainable impact to achieve sales growth”.

Philips released the results for the 4th quarter of 2022 with a net loss of € 105 million (R$ 581.6 million at this Monday, January 30) in the 4th quarter of 2022. In the year, the net loss was € 1.6 billion (R$ 8.7 billion at current quotations). Here’s the full of the financial statement (247 KB, in English).