APM-Maersk restructures and cuts staff

AP Møller-Mærsk will prune around 100 jobs at Group headquarters this month as part of a restructuring exercise. The Group is reorganising its headquarters into two uni activities like accounting, finance, IT, corporate relations and human resources. The service functions will support the Corporate Centre and all business units in areas like procurement, IT-services, oil trading, technical operations and recruitment. “The split will clarify responsibilities within the Group and we will place even more operational responsibility where it should be – decentralised in the business units. In addition, it will reduce complexity and save costs,” said Group CEO Nils S. Andersen. The new setup will result in changes to a number of activities with some being discontinued. This will impact the number of employees at Group headquarters where 830 positions will be reduced by around 100. Of the remaining staff around 250 will be employed in the Corporate Centre and 480 in service functions. “Having to reduce the number of employees is regrettable. But as the pressure on our business units increases, Group functions also have to be more effective in order to strengthen the Group’s overall competitiveness,” said Andersen. In the coming weeks, the Group will consult with an employee committee about redundancies, including compensation for the employees who will have to leave. The new headquarters setup is expected to be finalised this month.