Ferrari Announces Temporary Layoffs in November

Although it has denied being affected by the global economic crisis, Italian supercar maker Ferrari has just revealed that another wave of layoffs is approaching fast, after last December it reduced its workforce by up to 10 percent.

This time, Ferrari revealed that a temporary layoff for a week is set to take effect from the 9th to the 13th of November.

According to a company statement, this decision has been taken because of the drop in production activities undertaken on behalf of Maserati in engine manufacture and paint areas. This temporary layoff at Ferrari’s plant will allow the company to safeguard levels of occupation of the workforce.

“Such decision was necessary also because the sales forecast for 2009 and 2010 for Ferrari will be slightly lower than the record number achieved last year, not being possible for the company to reallocate the workers involved in the production activities covered by the temporary lay-offs, representing about 15 per cent of its workforce,” the statement added.

Ferrari ended the 2008 financial year with revenues of 1,921 million euro, an increase of 15.2% on the 1,668 million euro recorded in 2007. The increase was achieved by Ferrari not only by simply staying on the market, but also by applying cost reduction measures. Research costs were not part of those measures, as the percentage dedicated to this part of the business increased by 18 percent.

At that time, company chairman Luca di Montezemelo was revealing that it was hard for him to say how the situation will continue through 2009, as the economic climate in 2009 remained uncertain, while also confirming that Ferrari will have to pay more attention to every detail.