Caesarstone Ltd., an Israel-based developer and manufacturer of engineered quartz surfaces, recently announced its Global Growth Acceleration Plan, which includes a 7 percent cut to its global workforce.
The restructuring came as the company announced a net loss of $405,000 on revenues of $128.1 million in this year’s first quarter. Caesarstone executives stated that the U.S. market had become soft during the first quarter of the year as a result of a large amount of Chinese exports in anticipation of the implementation of unfair trade tariffs.
In an effort to identify operational inefficiencies and support growth objectives with a more strategic alignment of resources, an analysis was performed by the management, and a plan developed.
The cost reduction measures outlined in the Plan are intended to move the Company towards a more efficient and lean structure. Accordingly, the Caesarstone announced an immediate reduction in its global headcount by approximately 7 percent across all business units and regions. Through these actions the Company expects to gain efficiencies in a range of areas including production, supply chain and general & administrative functions. As part of the workforce reductions, the Company shut down one of the two production lines at its U.S. manufacturing facility in Richmond Hill, Ga. This reduction is expected to provide for increased production efficiency and reduced inventory levels over the next 12 months.
Additionally Caesarstone plans to expand its U.S. sales force by 15-20 percent over the next year. Large metropolitan areas and underrepresented markets will be the targeted sales locations.
Yuval Dagim, Chief Executive Officer, stated, “We believe that this plan will yield better allocation of our resources while more efficiently positioning our business for sustained profitable growth. Through this plan, we are implementing our new matrix organization structure, shifting our resources to invest in the right talent and technology to more efficiently manage our go-to-market, supply chain, and production processes.”
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