Nissan to cut another 11,000 employees and close seven plants as part of new Re:Nissan crisis strategy
Six months after announcing 9,000 job cuts, Nissan is doubling the scope of its anti-crisis measures. It now plans to lay off a total of 20,000 people worldwide - about 15 per cent of its current workforce of 133,580 employees. The measures will be implemented by 2027 as part of a new recovery programme called Re:Nissan.
Here's What We Know
The Re:Nissan programme aims to save ¥500bn ($3.4bn). The Japanese automaker hopes to achieve the claimed savings by cutting 20,000 jobs, closing 7 of its 17 car plants, and optimising costs in its RD, marketing, management and production divisions.
It is not yet specified which regions will be hit, but the US remains a key market: there Nissan has about 21,000 employees and three plants.
Financial results and reasons for the anti-crisis course of action
Fiscal 2024 (ended March) was an extremely disappointing year for Nissan. Net loss was ¥670.9bn ($4.5bn) and operating profit fell 88% to ¥69.8bn ($472m).
At the same time, the company's global sales totalled 3.35m vehicles, only slightly less than the 3.37m units in 2023. According to Nissan Motor's new CEO Ivan Espinosa, who took office on 1 April, the company cannot exist at this revenue-to-cost ratio. He also called fiscal 2025 a "transition year" to profitability in fiscal 2026.
In December 2024, Nissan was in merger talks with Honda, but they failed. Honda offered to turn Nissan into a subsidiary, which was rejected.
