Continental has confirmed that it expects to cut 2,000 jobs from the workforce of the newly acquired Siemens VDO.

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Speaking at the announcement of the group’s annual results, CEO Manfred Wennemer said he hoped that it would not coming to laying workers off, according to Automotive News Europe. “We cannot and do not want to rule out layoffs but they are the ultima ratio, when there is no other possibility,” he said.


The figure includes all 450 manufacturing jobs at VDO’s Wetzlar plant, he added.


Wennemer said the integration of the Siemens VDO business should achieve net synergy returns of more than EUR300m by 2010.


As a result of the acquisition Continental is now the fifth largest global supplier. For 2008 it is targeting sales of more than EUR26.4bn, up from EUR16.6bn in 2007.

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