PhosAgro could cut staff 23% in 2014, partly by outsourcing
MOSCOW. April 18 (Interfax) - PhosAgro plans to cut staff 23% in 2014 as part of its cost optimization program, partly by outsourcing and insourcing, the fertilizer producer's CEO, Andrei Guryev, said on a conference call.
Guryev said PhosAgro had 22,000 employees at the end of last year and would have 17,000 by the end of this year.
PhosAgro told Interfax that staff would be cut by 4,800 this year, with 2,400 of them transferred to outsourcing and 1,700 to insourcing organizations, while 700 would be laid off.
Restructuring costs related to PhosAgro's restructuring and staff optimization programme, which commenced in 2012 and comprises mainly redundancy payments and related social contributions, amounted to 1.513 billion rubles in 2013. The program is on track to be finalised in June 2014, and a provision of 472 million rubles relating to the completion of the programme has been recognized as an accrual in the 2013 financial statements, PhosAgro said in a financial report on April 17.
PhosAgro has already moved the management of its enterprises from Moscow to Cherepovets, in the Vologda region, where the group's key investment projects are currently carried out at its PhosAgro-Cherepovets facility. PhosAgro AG divisions that are not functionally tied to Moscow have moved to Cherepovets.
PhosAgro has said it plans to save some 2.7 billion rubles a year with staff optimization.