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Home > BizTimes Daily > Archives > January 29, 2009
Oshkosh Corp. cuts 1,050 more jobs
Published January 29, 2009 - BizTimes Daily
Oshkosh Corp. a manufacturer of specialty vehicles and vehicle bodies, today announced it has eliminated 1,050 more jobs and reported a first-quarter net loss of $20.6 million, or 28 cents per share, compared with a net income of $37.3 million, or 50 cents per share, in the same period a year ago.
The company's quarterly sales fell to $1.39 billion from $1.50 billion a year earlier.
Oshkosh Corp.'s latest job cuts, which reduced its work force by 7 percent, come atop a previous round of 1,400 layoffs last summer.
"We are obviously disappointed in the overall performance we are reporting today. It has been widely reported that global manufacturing orders and activity fell sharply in November and December 2008. Certain of our businesses shared this experience, which led to our weak performance in our first quarter. Fortunately, our defense, fire apparatus and domestic refuse collection vehicle businesses continued to report solid results," said Robert Bohn, Oshkosh Corp.'s chairman and chief executive officer.
Due to the losses, Bohn said the company does not expect to be able to avoid violating a financial covenant in its credit agreement.
"We have commenced discussions with our lead banks to seek an amendment to our credit agreement in the second quarter of fiscal 2009. We believe that we will be successful in finalizing an amendment that will provide us with financial covenant relief. We anticipate that the amendment will entail upfront fees and higher interest costs than under our current credit agreement," Bohn said. "In response to the weaker economic outlook, we have taken further measures to reduce our costs. These actions include a reduction in workforce of 7 percent, which is in addition to the workforce reduction concluded in the summer of 2008. Additionally, we have further reduced production, announced closures of a number of underutilized facilities and slashed spending in general. We understand these decisions will have wide-ranging effects on our employees, their families and the communities in which we operate, but we believe they are necessary in the current environment."
