Embattled Maersk Line, the world’s biggest container shipping line, is laying off about 400 employees at its global central offices as part of its reorganization plan.
About 250 of the positions to be abolished are those at its group headquarters in Copenhagen, Denmark. The rest are at its central offices located in London, Singapore, Mumbai, Pune, and Manila.
The reshuffle plan will be presented on June 12 and implemented immediately, the company, a subsidiary of Danish oil and shipping group A.P. Moller-Maersk, said in a press statement.
The revamp of its central management organization follows the substantial changes Maersk Line has made to its non-central offices since 2008. These included de-layering, off-shoring of work to shared service centers, simplifying processes, and empowering the front line.
“The results have been good, but more can be done,” said Soren Skou, CEO of Maersk Line.
The center revamp is expected to foster faster decision-making and decentralize execution and service tasks to Maersk Line’s country offices and shared service centers.
“We want to build a successful business that consistently delivers acceptable returns to its shareholders. This requires that we challenge ourselves to have as efficient an organization as possible,” said Skou.
Review of the revamp of the central offices, which employ 2,200 out of Maerk Line’s total staff of 25,000, began in March this year.
Maersk Line reported a net loss of US$599 million in the first quarter of 2012 from a profit of $424 million year-over-year.
Photo: Maersk Line
