Sunbeam Corp., under control of turnaround specialist Al Dunlap since 1996, is scheduled to announce Monday at an analysts meeting in New York what are expected to be layoffs, plant closings and other cost cuts.
Sunbeam and the outspoken Dunlap need to electrify institutional investors with a fresh turnaround after earnings and sales shortfalls, analysts say.
After an unusual three-week delay, Sunbeam is scheduled to release its first-quarter earnings Monday. The company warned it would report a loss for the quarter on a 5 percent fall in sales. It also said it had fired a top executive in its consumer-products division.
And on Friday, the company’s public relations firm, Hill & Knowlton, said it would no longer represent Sunbeam.
Known for 11,200 job cuts as Scott Paper’s chief executive in the middle 1990s, Dunlap has halved Sunbeam’s original work force by divestitures and plant closings and last year tried unsuccessfully to merge the company.
But he has since changed tactics and acquired at a cost of about $2.5 billion the manufacturers of Mr Coffee machines, Coleman camping equipment and First Alert smoke alarms.
