Metro AG, Germany’s largest retailer, has announced plans to eliminate 1,340 jobs at its domestic Cash & Carry wholesale unit to improve profitability.
The proposed cuts, representing about 10 percent of the unit’s 15,000 workers, will be made over 3 and a half years to reduce costs by 150 million euros ($212 million), the company said. Metro needs to cut expenses at the unit to address falling sales and margins.
Metro’s net loss widened to 100 million euros in the first quarter. The wholesale unit, the company’s biggest in terms of sales, broke even compared with a year-earlier operating profit of 70 million euros.
The German unit plans to more than double the number of own branded products by 2012 and cut prices on 5,000 items to attract customers.