Owner of the Consul and Brastemp gives vacation 5 thousand employees

To adapt the production to the lowest rate of sales and escape the period of low productivity because of the World Cup, 5 thousand workers of the Whirpool will be layoffs next month. Owner of the marks, Brastemp and Consul KitchenAid, the company is the largest manufacturer of appliances of white line of the country and produces stoves, fridges, microwave oven, washing machine, dishwasher and air-conditioners.
The outage involves the factories of Manaus (AM), where they are produced air-conditioning devices, microwave oven and dishwasher; Rio Claro (SP), responsible for the manufacture of stoves and washers, and staff working in the administrative sector of the company (1.3 thousand employees). Stay out of that stop only the effective factory of Joinville (SC), where it is produced the cooling part.
In Manaus, the layoffs will be of 30 days; in Rio Claro, between 16 and 25 June and the administrative staff to stay at home between 12 and 25 June.
According to the company, in Manaus the layoffs in June are normal because of low sales period of air-conditioning devices. But, in the case of Rio Claro and the administrative side of the company, the decision to give collective vacations at this time of year is unprecedented and has been motivated by the fall of productivity by the number of holidays in a row because of the World Cup.
According to Enrico Zito, President for Latin America of Whirlpool's appliance unit, sales of white goods market had near zero growth in the first quarter of this year as compared to the same period in 2013. And, for this quarter, the Outlook is more negative: fall between 10% and 15% compared to the previous year in number of units sold.
"Always in years of World Cup white line sales weaken, but this year were potentiated by the deceleration of the Brazilian economy", says the Executive.
Anyway, he does not confirm that stocks of the company are higher than planned. But a study done by the National Confederation of Commerce (CNC), based on the data of IBGE of Commerce, shows that the household segment closed the first quarter with strong mismatch between selling rate and accumulation of stocks. Sales rose 6.5% between January and March compared to the previous year and stocks, 12.1%, Result: the stranding at retail has increased and the shops buy less of the industry in the next moment.
Before the performance registered so far, Zito designs sales growth close to zero for the white market in 2014. Any reaction is expected for the second semester. "We will grow less this year, but you can be happy."
Price. Along with the stoppage of activities, the company has decided to increase by about 10% the cost of products. This increase stems from the pressure of accumulated costs by the company in recent times, that is no longer possible to be absorbed. "We have made an effort to increase productivity, but the cost pressure is too large and we need to go over the sale price."
Zito acknowledges that will have a difficult equation to solve for the front, which combines sales slump with the price increase. "Certainly no price increase helps sell."