Chinese car maker BYD Co (比亞迪), backed by Berkshire Hathaway chairman and chief executive Warren Buffett, yesterday denied reports of mass layoffs, but said a “reshuffle” was under way in its sales and management teams.
The China Business Journal, a Beijing-based business weekly, said BYD was considering cutting 7,000 staff in its auto division, citing unnamed employees who had attended an internal meeting.
BYD employs about 17,000 people, the state-run Global Times newspaper said.
“It is true we have been going through a reshuffle of our sales and management team. It involves optimization of our staff, but there is no such large scale layoff,” BYD spokesman Paul Lin (林密) said.
Lin said the move included the transfer of more than 300 employees of its auto sales department to other units, representing “most” of the staff affected, but declined to say if there had been any layoffs.
BYD, in which Buffett owns a 10 percent stake, has been dogged by rumors of job cuts since last month after it reported first-half net profit plunged 89 percent on-year due to a more than 23 percent drop in car sales.
However, Lin said sales had since improved.
“Sales have been boosted and this will be reflected in the next financial results,” he said.
He added sales were “brisk” for its sports utility vehicle, the S6, which was launched earlier this year at a price of 90,000 to 130,000 yuan (US$14,000 to US$20,300).
BYD, which makes both cars and batteries, had been focusing on the development of clean--energy vehicles, but the industry-wide slowdown has hit it hard, analysts say.
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