Orion announces restructuring plans

Orion has announced that as part of its new operational restructuring an estimated 205 job losses will be incurred.

The company, which at the end of 2008 employed approximately 3,300 people, unveiled its plans to restructure the business through statutory negotiations which began in November last year.

It has been decided as a result of this that the streamlining of operations in its pharmaceutical research and development departments will see 175 positions terminated with a period of notice, with a further 30 people either retired or made unemployed through other arrangements.

The cuts will be applied to Orion’s headquarters in Finland and have been negotiated from a previous estimate that predicted 300 jobs could be lost as part of the restructure.

Orion has stated that the final 205 redundancies and retirements will be made across three sites, with 105 losses at its Espoo site, 55 in its Turku base and 15 in its third location, Kuopio.

“The reductions will be implemented mainly in the course of the first half of 2009,” the company said in a statement.

Commenting on the restructure in November 2008, president and chief executive of Orion Timo Lappalainen said the moves would help the firm to become more flexible in the long-term.

“When implementing the necessary changes we cannot, unfortunately, avoid personnel reductions,” he added.