Ahlstrom Posts 4th-Quarter Loss | Sales rose 9.2 percent in Q4, but year-end profits fell 97 percent
Restructuring costs helped propel Finland-based Ahlstrom Corp.—which operates a major plant in Windsor Locks—into a reversal of fortunes with a substantial loss in the fourth quarter of its fiscal year, and a 97 percent plunge in net profits for the full year, according to a recently filed financial report.
For the three-month period ended Dec. 31, Ahlstrom posted a net loss of $43.2 million in U.S. currency, compared with a net profit of $13.1 million in the comparable period a year ago. The quarterly loss left Ahlstrom with a full-year net profit of $1.9 million, a major drop from the previous year when the company had net profits of $85.8 million.
Sales rose 18.8 percent in the fourth quarter to $689.5 million and rose 9.2 percent for the full year to $2.6 billion,
Early Retirement
Much of the quarterly loss and full-year profit decline came on one-time charges of more than $60 million related to job cuts and plant closings, mostly in Europe, according to the report.
In January, Ahlstrom acknowledged that it was continuing its job-cutting measures, including an early retirement package being offered to workers at its former Dexter plant in Windsor Locks.
The package, which Ahlstrom hopes will draw 20 to 30 workers to sign up, was offered in December, and the company expects to wrap up the process by the end of February, according to Paul Marold, vice president and general manager of the Windsor Locks plant.
Asked if the company might consider forced layoffs if there are not enough takers signing up for the early retirement package. Marold said that option is highly unlikely.
The company employs about 480 workers in Windsor Locks.
Other segments of the company have been hit even harder, as Ahlstrom also announced in January that during the fourth quarter of 2007 it reduced altogether 250 positions.
Combined with previously announced restructuring measures, a total of four plants in Europe and nine manufacturing lines will be closed, boosting the total number of job cuts throughout the company over the year to 650, according to the corporate announcement from Ahlstrom President and Chief Executive Officer Jukka Moisio.
The total one-time cost of the restructuring was about $66.5 million in U.S. currency, a charge that was taken against earnings in the fourth quarter of the fiscal year.
In 2000, Ahlstrom bought the former Dexter Corp.’s Windsor Locks plant, where a variety of “fiber composites,” or paper products including tea bags, are made.
WBJ Web Partners
Most Recent
Most Recent
0 Comments