Ford’s Russian jt venture to cut a third of jobs as sales fall

SAINT PETERSBURG, Apr 2 (AFP): Ford's Russian joint venture said Wednesday it plans to cut a third of its staff at its factory outside the northwestern city of Saint Petersburg due to falling sales.

"We confirm that we will reduce our workforce in the Saint Petersburg plant by about 700 positions," a spokeswoman for Ford-Sollers told AFP.

The plant in Vsevolozhsk on the outskirts of Russia's second largest city employs around 2,000 people assembling cars and commercial vehicles.

"We hope to achieve this through voluntary means," the spokeswoman added.

Ford-Sollers "needs to adapt to the current market conditions," the joint venture said in a statement.

 The announcement came after Russia's main carmaker, Avtovaz, which makes Lada cars, announced in January that it was cutting 10 per cent of its workforce this year, or around 7,500 jobs.

After years of spectacular growth, the Russian car market-which is the second largest in Europe after Germany's-contracted sharply in 2013.

Russia's car sales fell 5.5 per cent due to the economic slowdown, according to figures from the Association of European Businesses.