HEIDELBERG (dpa-AFX) - The mechanical engineering company Heidelberger Druck intends to cut personnel costs - but not jobs. This was announced by the new CEO Jürgen Otto, as confirmed by a company spokesman. Talks are already underway with the works council and IG Metall trade union. This concerns the company's approximately 6,000 employees in Germany. The plan is to put the money saved on personnel into a "future fund". This is to be used to make urgently needed investments, including in IT. Several media outlets had previously reported.

According to the Rhein-Neckar-Zeitung, Otto said that wage increases such as the seven percent demanded by IG Metall in the current round of collective bargaining could no longer be easily achieved by the workforce. Instead, he would rather see pay "based on targets". In any case, there are wages in the company that are above the applicable pay scale. The results of the talks with employee representatives should also be available in the fall.

Otto, who was most recently head of S.Oliver, wants to quickly put the company on course for growth. Heidelberger Druck is currently taking a cautious view of the new financial year following a decline in sales and earnings. Earnings from the beginning of April 2024 to the end of March 2025 are expected to remain at the previous year's level of just under 2.4 billion euros, as the company announced in June./jak/DP/jha