Peugeot Citroen has said it is seeking 4,800 voluntary job cuts in France to reduce costs.
The carmaker today reported first quarter sales up 6.5 per cent at €14.87 billion. The sales figure from Europe's second biggest car group was above the €14.24 billion average forecast in a Reuters poll of nine analysts.
It said its market share in Europe was 14.3 per cent against 14.4 per cent a year ago and worldwide vehicle sales rose 0.5 per cent in number of units. Its automotive sales were up 5.6 per cent to 11.595 billion.
Breaking a taboo against announcing job losses during French presidential elections, PSA said it was calling a works council meeting on May 9th to put a voluntary redundancy deal in place.
New chief executive Christian Streiff, who has said that the group was oversized, is set to give the first outlines of his strategy at a shareholders' meeting on May 23th.
The group had 211,700 staff world wide on December 31st, 121,900 of them in France. In France, 96,100 people work for the auto division - the rest in transport or finance.
"These voluntary reductions are only for the auto division, with the exception of plant workers and some specific functions," a spokesman said, stressing there would be no lay-offs.