BMW chief executive Norbert Reithofer has warned against painting a bleak financial outlook and said he’s sticking to his profit forecast for the year.
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He told a German newspaper that there is still double-digit growth in China and Russia while BMW will still sell a lot of cars in India and the Middle East.
BMW announced at the beginning of this year it would cut 8,100 jobs. Reithofer said: “When I saw what happened in the world in the last few weeks, I was even more convinced we took the right management decisions.” He added that 6,500 of those jobs had already gone and the rest should be eliminated by the end of the year.
Reithofer reiterated his forecast for the current financial year. “We have forecast a return on sales of 4% and we are sticking to that. Furthermore, we expect our turnover as a whole to be higher than for last year.”
BMW Group sold 1.5m vehicles worldwide in 2007. Group deliveries to the end of September 2008 were up 1.7% year on year to 1,113,972 units.
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By GlobalDataCommenting on key union IG Metall’s demand for an 8% pay increase, Reithofer said: “This is in no way compatible with being competitive.”
