Corus confirms 3.500 jobs to go

The company, now owned by the Indian group Tata, which is also owns iconic British automotive brands Jaguar and Land Rover, said its moves to bring annual improvements in operating profit of more than £200 million will put 3,500 jobs at risk around the company as a whole. Corus currently employs about 42,000 people. Corus, which said the measures included “taking the opportunity to provide additional training to employees experiencing temporary shortages of work” added that it “will continue to discuss with employee representatives options to match payroll costs with the new production and demand levels”. CEO Philippe Varin said: “The structural changes we are proposing today have been carefully considered. They are essential for the future of the business. The company will keep its focus on priority areas such as training, research and product development, which, together with today’s initiative, will ensure Corus is in the best possible shape to compete strongly in the future.” The key features of the initiative are: Divestments — sale of Corus’ aluminium smelters in Germany and the Netherlands (announced Jan 21) and advanced discussions on the sale of a majority stake in Teesside Cast Products. Asset restructuring — mothballing of the Llanwern hot strip mill; restructuring of engineering steels into two businesses — a specialty steels business at Stocksbridge fed by electric furnace steel from Rotherham and a bar business at Rotherham with steel sourced from the integrated works at Scunthorpe. Efficiency and overhead review — including a review of support functions such as IT, finance and human resources, with a target to reduce costs in these areas by around 20%. In addition, the company said it intended to make changes to the British Steel Pension Scheme by closing its defined benefit scheme to new recruits. Pictured: Corus' plant at Port Talbot.