Poor demand forces Autosan to fire 20% of its workforce

A crisis on the national bus market has forced Autosan, a leading bus manufacturer from Sanok, to take dramatic steps. "In the first quarter of 2004, 200 people out of 1,027 will leave the plant. We are in the process of negotiations with the trade unions regarding the value of severance pay and the list of redundancies," said Autosan president Andrzej Krzanowski. He added that the perspectives for the coming year were not promising, as "Our largest customer, PKS, does not have the money to even renovate its current stock, let alone buy new buses. Moreover, EU accession will mean the removal of barriers that helped block imported used vehicles," stressed Krzanowski. The company will take part in tenders for school buses organized by the Education Ministry, but it has rather limited chances of winning them. "Autosan's offer is adapted to the needs of Eastern markets. However, those markets have problems with financing purchases," claims Aleksander Kierecki, the director of JMK ARA, a company researching the bus market. (Puls B iznesu, pp. 1, 9) M.M.