Israel Aerospace Industries Ltd. (IAI) (TASE: ARSP.B1) is laying off 900 employees from its Aviation Group, the board of directors decided last week, source inform "Globes."
The Aviation Group has 5,000 employees out of a total of 16,000 at the company. The Aviation Group performs maintenance on aircraft, and manufactures executive jets and aircraft parts. Over the past decade, the Group has accumulated $600 million in losses and even in 2019, a record year for IAI, the Group ended the year with zero profits. IAI's profitable defense section subsidizes the Aviation Group. IAI is concerned about the situation following the virus crisis and feels it can no longer sustain losses.
At the same time IAI has announced that CEO Nimrod Sheffer is stepping down after just two years in the job. Sheffer, 59, joined IAI as VP Strategic Planning at the start of 2018 after 36 years of military service as a combat pilot in the air force. In his last capacity in IDF, he served as head of the Planning Division.
During his term as IAI CEO, Sheffer has introduced a series of reforms and transformations and has drafted a growth strategy and a business plan which yielded excellent business results for IAI in the past six quarters.
Sheffer said, "IAI employees are the spearhead of the Israeli industry, the crème de la crème."
IAI Chair, Harel Locker, thanked Nimrod Sheffer for his valuable contribution to leading the company through challenging times, and for championing complex strategic processes
Sheffer will leave IAI after training his successor
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on July 1, 2020
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