Lafarge-Holcim announce around 500 combined job losses ahead of merger

Cement giant 725 Lafarge plan to axe 380 jobs and fellow sector giant 680 Holcim is cutting around 120 jobs in a “key phase” of preparations for the merger of the two companies in July 2015.

France’s Lafarge and Switzerland-based Holcim say the new merged firm will be the world’s most advanced Group in the building materials industry, boasting annual revenues of around €40 billion and employing approximately 115,000 people.

The organisation of the new LafargeHolcim Group will be balanced, says Lafarge, between a “decentralised structure and strong central functions based on three organisational levels: countries; regions (Europe, North America, Middle East & Africa, Latin America, Asia-Pacific); and corporate functions, which will help define the Group’s key strategies.”

Lafarge says there would be an equivalent number of personnel in the central functions in France and Switzerland. Moreover, the new Group’s R&D center would be located in France, in L’Isle d’Abeau, near Lyon.

Concerning Lafarge at worldwide level (i.e., in sites located in Atlanta, Beijing, Cairo, Kuala Lumpur, Lyon, Montreal, Paris and Vienna), the proposed new organisation of central functions would result in 166 job losses in France (Paris and Lyon) out of approximately 380 Lafarge jobs being cut worldwide.

Holcim says that its earmarked 120 job losses would come from Holcim Group functions in Switzerland.