Page 25 - atoday
P. 25
BUSINESS A25
Thursday 5 November 2015
Kraft Heinz to close 7 factories in US, Canada in downsizing
RYAN J. FOLEY The company said it would meat processing plant merger of Kraft and Heinz and reduce operational
Associated Press close manufacturing fa- in Davenport, Iowa, and earlier this year. redundancies for the new
IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — cilities in Fullerton and San move production to a new After the facilities close, combined company,” Mi-
Kraft Heinz will close sev- Leandro, California; Fed- state-of-the-art plant to be Kraft Heinz will have 41 chael Mullen, senior vice
en plants in the U.S. and eralsburg, Maryland; St. built several miles away plants in North America president of corporate and
Canada over the next two Marys, Ontario, Canada; within two years. Part of the that employ about 18,000 government affairs, said in
years as part of a downsiz- Campbell, New York; Le- company’s cheese pro- people. a statement.
ing that will eliminate 2,600 high Valley, Pennsylvania; duction will also be moved “Our decision to con- “This will make Kraft Heinz
jobs, or roughly 14 percent and Madison, Wisconsin. away from Champaign, Il- solidate manufacturing more globally competitive
of its North American fac- The closures will occur over linois. across the Kraft Heinz and accelerate the com-
tory workforce, the newly- the next 12 to 24 months. The company, co-head- North American network is pany’s future growth,” he
merged food company The company said it also quartered in Chicago and a critical step in our plan to said. q
announced Wednesday. will close its existing lunch- Pittsburgh, formed from the eliminate excess capacity
Honda profit up despite hit from Takata air bag recalls
YURI KAGEYAMA edly said it won’t rescue Honda Motor Co. CEO Takahiro Hachigo speaks next to a Honda FCX Clarity at the Tokyo Motor
AP Business Writer Takata, issued a statement
TOKYO (AP) — Honda re- saying Takata had not show in Tokyo. Honda reported a quarterly profit of 127.7 billion yen ($1 billion) Wednesday, Nov.
ported a quarterly profit of been forthright enough.
127.7 billion yen ($1 billion) “We have become aware 4, up 7 percent from its revised result from the year before, even as costs of a massive recall re-
Wednesday, up 7 percent of evidence that suggests
from its revised result from that Takata misrepresented lated to defective air bags dented the boost from healthy sales.
the year before, even as and manipulated test data
costs of a massive recall re- for certain air bag infla- (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
lated to defective air bags tors,” Honda said. “Honda
dented the boost from expects its suppliers to act tigation. Although there ca Lindland. “I think they ucts, including air bags mi-
healthy sales. with integrity at all times,
Tokyo-based Honda, hard and we are deeply trou- is a question mark about will weather the storm, but nus the inflators.
hit by air bag problems at bled by this apparent be-
supplier Takata Corp., said havior by one of our suppli- Takata’s future, one factor they need to come clean.” Takata shares plunged
it will stop buying air bag ers.”
inflators from Takata for Takata agreed to pay $70 in its favor is that it makes a It is also not easy for auto- 13 percent in Tokyo on
models now under devel- million in U.S. penalties for
opment. lapses in how it handled re- variety of products, includ- makers to switch suppliers Wednesday. It reports earn-
The maker of the Odyssey calls of millions of explosion-
minivan, Civic sedan and prone air bags, blamed ing seat belts and steering because model develop- ings Friday.
Asimo robot had recall- in eight deaths and more
related expenses totaling than 100 injuries worldwide. wheels. Air bags made up ment and planning take Takata plans to pay $10
87.5 billion yen ($723 mil- Under the five-year pact,
lion) for the quarter. July- the National Highway Traf- 38 percent of Takata sales several years, and various million in the NHTSA fines
September sales rose near- fic Safety Administration
ly 16 percent to 3.6 trillion can increase the penalty last fiscal year. models at a manufacturer this fiscal year, but will book
yen ($30 billion). to a record $200 million if
The automaker said it re- Takata fails to abide by the “I don’t know if it’s enough share platforms, or basic the entire amount in its next
vised past earnings be- terms. Takata agreed to
cause it has adopted In- phase out air bag inflators to take the company parts. earnings. Takata said it has
ternational Financial Re- that use ammonium nitrate,
porting Standards, a set the propellant blamed for down,” said Kelley Blue Honda has not ruled out the enough in its coffers to pay
of accounting rules being the explosions.
promoted globally by the Takata Chief Executive Book senior analyst Rebec- use of other Takata prod- the $10 million. q
International Accounting Shigehisa Takada stressed
Standards Board as more the company will comply
transparent and account- and deliver a fix. But the
able. root cause of the propel-
Honda, which has repeat- lant remains under inves-
Pressure grows on Volkswagen as the bad news piles up
DAVID McHUGH up its investigation into the The company has been un- on a test stand. Volkswa- U.S. and Canada of the
GEIR MOULSON cheating, while the com- able halt the flow of bad gen acknowledged that 11 models involved: the Volk-
Associated Press pany halted sales of seven news since mid-Septem- million vehicles worldwide swagen Touareg, Porsche
FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) models in the U.S. that al- ber, when the U.S. Environ- have the software. Cayenne, and the Audi A6,
— The fallout from Volk- legedly were part of the mental Protection Agency On Monday, the EPA A7, A8, Q5 and Q7.
swagen’s emissions-cheat- plot. said Volkswagen had in- charged that Volkswagen Late Tuesday, VW said
ing scandal intensified The latest developments stalled software on 482,000 also used cheating soft- it had also found “unex-
Wednesday, as investors followed Volkswagen’s ad- cars with small diesel en- ware in some cars with larg- plained inconsistencies”
dumped the company’s mission Tuesday that it had gines that enabled them to er diesel engines, including in emissions from some of
stock and a credit ratings understated the carbon di- cheat on emissions tests for Volkswagen’s elite Porsche its vehicles of carbon di-
agency downgraded its oxide emissions for 800,000 one pollutant, nitrogen ox- brand. Volkswagen denied oxide, a gas that scientists
debt. European regula- cars, widening the scope ide. The software reduced the claim, but over the past say contributes to global
tors demanded VW speed of the scandal. emissions when the car was two days halted sales in the warming.q
