Exide Technologies (Princeton, NJ) announced that it is closing two automotive battery manufacturing plants as part of its ongoing restructuring plan to reduce automotive production capacity in North America. The company also announced further restructuring actions in its European operations, including workforce reductions at two manufacturing facilities and a reorganization of its transportation business sales force. The Exide restructuring plan, first announced in September 2000, is expected to reduce annualized costs by approximately $90 million.
As a result of these announced actions, Exide will record a pre-tax, non-recurring charge of approximately $68 million in its fourth fiscal quarter, as well as record reserves of $14.5 million in connection with the purchase accounting for the GNB acquisition. In total, approximately 950 employees will be affected worldwide. The automotive battery plants to be closed are in Burlington, Iowa and Dunmore, Pennsylvania.
Chairman and CEO Robert A. Lutz commented, “These actions are part of a difficult but necessary program we initiated following our acquisition of GNB Technologies. We believe that these steps, when combined with our previous actions, will balance our manufacturing capacity in North America and allow us to reduce overhead and manufacturing costs in Europe. These actions are needed to improve profitability in our transportation business."
