EUROGATE’S prudent approach

However, due to the financial and economic crisis, a marked downturn is expected for 2009. “No one is currently in a position to offer a reliable forecast for fiscal 2009,”said EUROGATE chairman Emanuel Schiffer. In the first quarter of the year, EUROGATE Group has already recorded significant reductions in container volumes at its locations that have already affected revenue and earnings forecasts.

Accordingly EUOROGATE has begun mitigation measures by initiating a programme to align costs and investments. Talks are underway with employee representatives on labour flexibility with the emphasis on job security with no enforced redundancies.

At EUROGATE’S Bremerhaven facility following agreed flexibilty measures, short-time working is shortly to be introduced, probably from May 2, 2009. In Hamburg, short-time work is currently not an issue and enforced layoffs are not planned.