French-owned Polar announces further lay-offs in wake of zl. 17m losses

Polar, the leading producer of domestic appliances, yesterday announced plans to lay off up to 900 employees by 2004. This is the second job cut this year, following 560 job losses in the first half of the year, an undertaking which cost the company zl.12 million in compensation payments. Polar, which is 94.8% owned by Moulinex Brandt, suffered losses of zl.17.1 million in the first quarter of 2001, despite its revenues of zl.77.8 million. Moulinex Brandt has also warned of plans to dismiss up to 4,000 employees in their production plants worldwide. There is speculation that one of the reasons for Polar's poor performance is that its strategic investor is promoting its own Brandt product name in favor of the famous Polar brand name. According to Bogna Sikorska, market analyst from CDM Pekao S.A., "They are not developing the Polar brand-name, which is very popular, though there are many new Brandt products on the market". (Prawo i Gospodarka p. 11, Parkiet p. 3) A.K.