Moore Corp. said Thursday it will cut 4,800 jobs, or a quarter of its workforce, sell factories and record a $630 million pretax charge, as new chief Ed Tyler tries to restore profits at the world’s largest printer of business forms.
The company will pull out of Asia and Australia and fire 1,900 employees in North America, where it will close seven of its 37 plants. The deeper-than-expected cuts will result in $120 million in savings by 2001, Moore said.
“Their plans are to build revenue and regain market share,” said Michael Van Aelst, an analyst at CIBC Wood Gundy Securities Inc. in Montreal.
Moore, which had a 1997 revenue of $2.63 billion, also recorded a second-quarter loss that was wider than expected due to rising costs and excess capacity at its U.S. factories. Moore has 20,000 employees and 100 manufacturing plants in 47 countries.
