February 19 (SeeNews) - Slovenian car maker Revoz, a unit of France's Renault, is planning to gradually reduce worktime by April in order to cut production to 800 vehicles per day from 950 at present, local media reported.
The company also plans to slash its labour force by 250 people, mainly by cutting the number of employees on fixed-term contracts, news daily Dnevnik reported earlier this week.
The reduction in worktime will be made by cutting the night shift by half.
Thus, Revoz will manufacture this year 10,000 vehicles less compared to 199,146 produced in 2019, which will also result in lower revenues, Delo said.
In July, Revoz launched production of the new Renault Clio 5 model following a 90 million euro ($97 million) investment, towards which the government in Ljubljana contributed 6 million euro worth of incentives.
Revoz can manufacture 220,000 cars annually, including Renault Twingo and the electric Smart forfour models, apart from the new Clio 5. Twingo and Clio 5 vehicles are expected to each account for 40% of the company's total production and Smart cars will make up the reminder.
Local media reported last year that Revoz is able to roll out up to 80,000 Clio 5s per year and up to 600 daily. The media also reported that Revoz will start manufacturing small numbers of the hybrid Clio 5 in 2020.
In other to facilitate the production of the new Clio 5 model, the company hired 270 new workers last year. Prior to that, Novo Mesto-based Revoz, the only car maker in Slovenia and one of the country's top exporters, employed some 3,400.
Renault became a 100%-owner of Revoz in 2004. Yet, the cooperation of the French car maker with the Slovenian company and its predecessors dates back to 1972 with the production of the legendary Renault 4 model.
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