Dramatic redundancies may be not enough for Optimus

Optimus is to lay off nearly one-third of its employees in an attempt to cut costs and improve the company's financial situation. On Friday company spokesperson Marek Macias confirmed that employment would be reduced by between 25% to 30%, but said it was too early to say how many people would be dismissed from Optimus and how many from its subsidiaries. Reducing the workforce has been the first radical measure taken by the new company president Andrzej Widerszpil, who early in June replaced Jacek Krawczyk. He declared that under his management, in the fall, the company, reporting a zl. 4,4 million net loss, would start showing an operational profit. A nalysts approved of Widerszpil's decision, "If Optimus still wants to produce equipment, redundancies seem the only way to increase profita bility," said Sobieslaw Pajak from CDM Pekao. The news influenced the situation on the Warsaw Stock Exchange, with Optimus share price shooting up by nearly 7% to zl. 9.5 per share, their highest level since April. Pajak believes that reductions alone will not save the company, whose financial problems can only be solved by merger with one of its competitors, such as JTT from Wroclaw. (Gazeta Wyborcza, June 22-23, p. 28) K.S.