Nokia continues to increase cost-efficiency and...
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Nokia plans to close the Jyväskylä site and concentrate mobile
devices R&D in Finland at Tampere, Oulu, Salo and the Helsinki
metropolitan area
Nokia plans to scale down Salo production with temporary lay-offs to
align with market demand - operations continue uninterrupted
As part of its previously announced plans to increase cost-efficiency
and adapt to the market situation, Nokia today announced plans to
close its mobile devices R&D site in Jyväskylä, concentrating mobile
devices R&D in Finland at its sites in Tampere, Oulu, Salo and the
Helsinki metropolitan area. Nokia also plans to scale down Salo
production with staggered temporary lay-offs, aligning production
with market demand while continuing operations without interruption.
Nokia will begin consultations with employee representatives about
these plans.
Ramping down R&D in Jyväskylä
Nokia's operations in Jyväskylä focus mainly on mobile device product
development and marketing. Nokia plans to gradually ramp down the
site and close it by the end of 2009. The planned change concerns all
of the approximately 320 employees working at the Jyväskylä site. The
majority of employees at Nokia Jyväskylä work for devices product
development, but the site also has some marketing activities and
global support functions. Nokia plans to concentrate its mobile
device R&D in Finland at existing sites in Tampere, Oulu, Salo and
the Helsinki metropolitan area.
The planned change aims at adjusting the productization capacity of
Nokia's Devices unit to reflect the portfolio cuts, thereby
increasing efficiencies in its R&D operations and reducing operating
expenditure. Nokia's target has been to focus product creation at
larger sites, closer to technology asset creation, which enables the
optimal use of competencies and infrastructure.
"Our employees in Jyväskylä are highly competent and have contributed
to the creation of numerous hit products. The planned closure of the
Jyväskylä site is an unfortunate, yet unavoidable measure. We must
adjust our resources to reflect reduced market demand in order to
maintain our competitiveness also in the future," says Peter Røpke,
Senior Vice President, Devices R&D, Nokia.
Scaling down the production in Salo
Nokia plans to scale down the production in Salo to reflect the
market demand. Nokia will implement temporary lay-offs on a
rotational basis, with operations at the factory continuing without
downtime. This arrangement is based on the Finnish labour practices
and legislation, and is commonly used to adjust production to reflect
notable fluctuation in market demand.
The temporary lay-offs are planned to be implemented in phases i.e.
in a staggered way, with approximately 20 - 30% out of approximately
2 500 employees being temporarily laid off at a time, without
interrupting the operations in Salo. The planned lay-offs impact all
personnel groups in Salo production.
"With these plans, we aim to scale down Salo production to reflect
reduced market demand, while operations in the factory continue
uninterrupted," says Juha Putkiranta, Senior Vice President, Demand
Supply Network Management, Nokia. "This is one of the measures we are
taking to adjust our global demand supply network to the current
situation."
In addition to the above mentioned plans, Nokia will also start
consultations with employee representatives regarding personnel
reduction plans impacting approximately 60 employees in global
support functions and 30 employees in the planned ramping down and
focusing of certain development activities in the New Businesses
entity in Services.
All of these measures are part of Nokia's previously announced plans
to adjust business operations and cost base according to market
demand and safeguard future competitiveness. Nokia continues to seek
savings in operational expenses, looking at all areas and activities
across the company.
About Nokia
Nokia is the world leader in mobility, driving the transformation and
growth of the converging Internet and communications industries. We
make a wide range of mobile devices with services and software that
enable people to experience music, navigation, video, television,
imaging, games, business mobility and more. Developing and growing
our offering of consumer Internet services, as well as our enterprise
solutions and software, is a key area of focus. We also provide
equipment, solutions and services for communications networks through
Nokia Siemens Networks.
FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
It should be noted that certain statements herein which are not
historical facts, including, without limitation, those regarding: A)
the timing of product, services and solution deliveries; B) our
ability to develop, implement and commercialize new products,
services, solutions and technologies; C) expectations regarding
market growth, developments and structural changes; D) expectations
regarding our mobile device volume growth, market share, prices and
margins; E) expectations and targets for our results of operations;
F) the outcome of pending and threatened litigation; G) expectations
regarding the successful completion of contemplated acquisitions on a
timely basis and our ability to achieve the set targets upon the
completion of such acquisitions; and H) statements preceded by
"believe," "expect," "anticipate," "foresee," "target," "estimate,"
"designed," "plans," "will" or similar expressions are
forward-looking statements. These statements are based on
management's best assumptions and beliefs in light of the information
currently available to it. Because they involve risks and
uncertainties, actual results may differ materially from the results
that we currently expect. Factors that could cause these differences
include, but are not limited to: 1) the deteriorating global economic
conditions and the related financial crisis and their impacts on us,
our customers, suppliers, and collaborative partners; 2)
competitiveness of our product, service and solutions portfolio; 3)
the extent of the growth of the mobile communications industry; 4)
the growth and profitability of the new market segments that we
target and our ability to successfully develop or acquire and market
products, services and solutions in those segments; 5) our ability to
successfully manage costs; 6) the intensity of competition in the
mobile communications industry and our ability to maintain or improve
our market position or respond successfully to changes in the
competitive landscape; 7) the impact of changes in technology and our
ability to develop or otherwise acquire complex technologies as
required by the market, with full rights needed to use; 8) timely and
successful commercialization of complex technologies as new advanced
products, services and solutions; 9) our ability to protect the
complex technologies, which we or others develop or that we license,
from claims that we have infringed third parties' intellectual
property rights, as well as our unrestricted use on commercially
acceptable terms of certain technologies in our products, services
and solution offerings; 10) our ability to protect numerous Nokia and
Nokia Siemens Networks patented, standardized or proprietary
technologies from third-party infringement or actions to invalidate
the intellectual property rights of these technologies; 11) Nokia
Siemens Networks' ability to achieve the expected benefits and
synergies from its formation to the extent and within the time period
anticipated and to successfully integrate its operations, personnel
and supporting activities; 12) whether, as a result of investigations
into alleged violations of law by some current or former employees of
Siemens AG ("Siemens"), government authorities or others take further
actions against Siemens and/or its employees that may involve and
affect the carrier-related assets and employees transferred by
Siemens to Nokia Siemens Networks, or there may be undetected
additional violations that may have occurred prior to the transfer,
or ongoing violations that may have occurred after the transfer, of
such assets and employees that could result in additional actions by
government authorities; 13) any impairment of Nokia Siemens Networks
customer relationships resulting from the ongoing government
investigations involving the Siemens carrier-related operations
transferred to Nokia Siemens Networks; 14) occurrence of any actual
or even alleged defects or other quality issues in our products,
services and solutions; 15) our ability to manage efficiently our
manufacturing and logistics, as well as to ensure the quality,
safety, security and timely delivery of our products, services and
solutions; 16) inventory management risks resulting from shifts in
market demand; 17) our ability to source sufficient amounts of fully
functional components and sub-assemblies without interruption and at
acceptable prices; 18) any disruption to information technology
systems and networks that our operations rely on; 19) developments
under large, multi-year contracts or in relation to major customers;
20) economic or political turmoil in emerging market countries where
we do business; 21) our success in collaboration arrangements
relating to development of technologies or new products, services and
solutions; 22) the success, financial condition and performance of
our collaboration partners, suppliers and customers; 23) exchange
rate fluctuations, including, in particular, fluctuations between the
euro, which is our reporting currency, and the US dollar, the Chinese
yuan, the UK pound sterling and the Japanese yen, as well as certain
other currencies; 24) the management of our customer financing
exposure; 25) allegations of possible health risks from
electromagnetic fields generated by base stations and mobile devices
and lawsuits related to them, regardless of merit; 26) unfavorable
outcome of litigations; 27) our ability to recruit, retain and
develop appropriately skilled employees; 28) the impact of changes in
government policies, laws or regulations; and 29) our ability to
effectively and smoothly implement our new organizational structure;
as well as the risk factors specified on pages 10-25 of Nokia's
annual report on Form 20-F for the year ended December 31, 2007 under
"Item 3.D Risk Factors." Other unknown or unpredictable factors or
underlying assumptions subsequently proving to be incorrect could
cause actual results to differ materially from those in the
forward-looking statements. Nokia does not undertake any obligation
to update publicly or revise forward-looking statements, whether as a
result of new information, future events or otherwise, except to the
extent legally required.
Media Enquiries:
Nokia
Communications
Tel. +358 7180 34900
Email: press.services@nokia.com
www.nokia.com
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NOKIA
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