Croatian Bathroom Fixtures Co Inker To Cut up to 170 Jobs by End-'09

The workforce of the porcelain products division will be cut by up to 170 to around 70 workers, the company said in a statement to the Zagreb Stock Exchange (ZSE).

Inker's porcelain tableware sales fell by 8.0% in 2008 due to the financial downturn and the decline has persisted in the first eight months of this year, the company said, giving no hard figures.

Inker slumped to a loss of 3.4 million kuna ($683,500/466,400 euro) in the first half of 2009 - on sales of 50.7 million kuna, from a net profit of 3.6 million kuna a year earlier when sales totalled 66.6 million kuna.

The company (www.inker.hr) was set up in 1953 and is headquartered in the town of Zapresic, a few kilometres west of capital Zagreb.

Inker shares were last traded on the ZSE on August 27, when they closed unchanged at 120 kuna.

(1 euro = 7.2907 Croatian kuna)