Over a hundred Cargotec employees in Finland will lose their jobs, and other staff in the company's global operations could also be impacted by the company's new business-driven operating model.

Employee co-operation negotiations were launched last October and were completed on 19 November, resulting in about 105 man-years cut from offices and production sites in Finland.

By discontinuing temporary agreements, not filling open vacancies and other arrangements, 33 positions will be removed. About 72 staff will also be made redundant in the global support functions, corporate functions, services business area, EMEA region and Terminals business area.

This will result in 65 employment contracts terminated in Tampere while in Helsinki, 31 employment contracts will be terminated and in Kaarina and Turku, nine employment contracts will be discontinued.

Anne Westersund, Cargotec's vice president for communications and marketing, tells Forkliftaction.com News the Marine, Terminals and Load Handling business areas will operate more independently than before to improve each area's profitability.

"To enable more independent businesses, our global support functions and corporate functions will be reorganised towards a holding company type of structure," she explains.

The services business area and EMEA region organisations will be integrated into the Marine, Terminals and Load Handling business areas which, from January 2013, will be renamed the MacGregor, Kalmar and Hiab business areas, respectively.

Cargotec aims to enable "faster decision-making, improve efficiency and ensure profitable growth" through the new business-driven model.

"The new operating model will also support the preparation of Marine's listing in Asia. The primary objective of the holding company structure is to maximise shareholder value," Westersund says. Cargotec wants to list Cargotec Marine on the Singapore Exchange to boost its business presence in Asia (Forkliftaction.com News #571).

Cargotec employs about 1,000 people in Finland. About 80 employees in Belgium, China, Germany, the Netherlands, Russia, Spain, the UK and US are impacted by the new operating model and Westersund says negotiations are still under way.

Cargotec claims its subsidairy brands, Hiab, Kalmar and MacGregor, are leaders in cargo and load handling solutions around the world. The company's sales were EUR 3.1 billion (USD4.0 billion) in 2011 and it employs approximately 10,500 people.