Iscar Ltd. is switching to a four-day workweek, a week after Amdocs Ltd. (NYSE: DOX) announced a similar move. Iscar, which manufactures cutting tools for the vehicle and aviation industries, is taking a range of cost-cutting measures to cope with the plunge in orders from customers, especially US carmakers.
Iscar chairman Eitan Wertheimer told "Globes", "If we have no alternative, we'll lay off people, but our goal is to avoid this and to adjust sales to the long term. This crisis is going to be tough."
Wertheimer added, "We cut things we can do without. We aren’t hurting our customers or our employees." He further noted, "Mercedes Benz in Europe has gone to a three-day workweek. I hope that won't happen to us, but we'll do it if we have to."
Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway bought 80% of Iscar from the Wertheimers for $4 billion in May, 2006.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on March 2, 2009
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