Whereas the carmaker is now back on track when it comes to the release of new models, not the same can be said about the sales department. Hit by not so great numbers, Spyker was forced to announce a trimming of the sales target for the year by some 10,000 units.
This decision is apparently not without consequence for the workers of the Swedish carmaker. According to Reuters, citing union representative Hakan Skott, 200 people, or about one eighth of the total Saab workforce, will be laid off.
"I'm not exactly surprised,” said Skott. “We reduced our sales forecast just a couple of weeks ago and there is a decline in sales every year around Christmas and at the end of the year. I'm sure that by February-March we will see an upward trend and people will buy cars again."
The same optimism is shared by the company's CEO, Jan Ake Jonsson (the same who last year counted Saab bidders by the tens, and yet Saab nearly died because of the lack of a proper bid or bidder) and by Spyker's CEO, Victor Muller.
"There is absolutely no reason to worry. Our plans for the future still stand. Next year, we will build 80,000 cars,” Muller told Dagens Industri.
Meanwhile, Saab sales totaled EUR275 million ($382 million) in the third quarter of 2010, while the number of units sold reached 7,430 units.
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