The big surprise about Lotus’s announcement of job losses is that it has taken so long to happen.
It’s been more than two years since former Lotus CEO Dany Bahar’s acrimonious split from the company and the axing of his ambitious plans to introduce five entirely new models. Since then things have been eerily quiet at Hethel, and sales of Lotus’s road cars have slowed to a trickle in most major markets.
Yesterday’s statement says that Group Lotus plans to “restructure its worldwide workforce” and that up to 325 jobs are at risk. With Lotus currently employing 1200 people—1000 at its Hethel headquarters alone—that means up to a quarter of the workforce could soon depart.
Lotus is owned by Malaysian conglomerate DRB-Hicom, which has been almost silent on its plans for the brand since Bahar left. Earlier this year the company appointed a new CEO, Jean-Marc Gales, formerly president of France’s PSA Peugeot Citroën and presumably the man behind the structuring.
“We have worked very hard to avoid the need to make the proposal, but do believe that it is now essential,” Gales said in the official statement. “It is in no way a reflection on our employees who have shown nothing but dedication to us and have worked tirelessly to support Lotus.”
What we don’t know is how the job cuts will be distributed across Group Lotus’s subsidiaries: Lotus Cars, Lotus Engineering, and Lotus Motorsport. Lotus Cars has been quietly shedding staff in recent years, but Engineering, which acts as a consultancy for other carmakers, has long been the company’s profit center. If serious numbers of jobs disappear there then Lotus really is in trouble. The Motorsport division is the smallest part of the business, but Lotus’s one-make racing series remains popular in many parts of the world. The company has no relationship with the Lotus F1 Team beyond what’s described as a “branding partnership.”
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We’re casting around for any silver lining on this one. It’s difficult, though—Lotus remains years away from being able to introduce new road models, and we’ve separately learned that the Evora won’t be coming to the U.S. after 2014.
from Car and Driver Blog http://ift.tt/1sERK3D
via Agya
