Elevator maker Kone to cut 1000 jobs

HELSINKI

Finnish elevator giant Kone announced on Jan. 26 that it planned restructuring that would result in around 1,000 jobs cut globally, as the company’s results showed orders fall in the fourth quarter.

“The planned changes are estimated to generate annual cost savings of around 100 million euros,” said the company, which has over 60,000 employees.

Kone’s annual net income fell 23.3 percent to 785 million euros ($853 million) in 2022, with a drop of 0.7 percent to 276.3 million euros in the final quarter.

While annual orders were up 3.1 percent at 9.1 billion euros, the final quarter saw them fall by 9.8 percent to 1.9 billion euros compared to the previous year.

“The market backdrop in China caused our fourth quarter orders to decline and significantly weakened our cash flow,” CEO Henrik said in a statement.

Rising inflation and the war in Ukraine also created “further uncertainty” for Kone.

“While we cannot be pleased with the development of our profitability, we did see an improvement in the fourth quarter thanks to the strong growth in maintenance sales,” Ehrnrooth added.

Sales in the last quarter for the company grew 5.2% to 2.9 billion euros.

Kone reported positive development in service market activity with “good opportunities for growth” in 2023.