The 53-year-old Makoto Uchida takes over during a tough time at Nissan.
Nissan Motor Co. plans to help stem the tide of difficult financial results by having its North American operations shut down for two days in January.
The Japanese automaker’s suffered through a difficult year financially as well as trying to plow through issues related to its senior leadership. Shutting down its plants for two days will let it recoup some costs.
The company has been trying to cut costs after its profit plunged this fiscal year. A stronger yen have combined with falling sales in China and the United States, pushing the automaker to cut its forecast for operating income to an 11-year low.
(Nissan Q2 operating profit falling more than 70 percent)
“To optimize business performance and competitiveness, Nissan North America will implement two office closure days in the U.S. on Jan. 2 and Jan. 3, 2020,” Nissan said in a statement.
Stephen Ma, Nissan’s next CFO, reviewed the automaker’s disappointing Q2 earnings.
The closure, the automaker noted, would not affect dealers including those of its Infiniti brand, Reuters reported.
Automotive News has earlier reported Japan’s second-largest automaker would place its entire U.S. organization on two days of unpaid furlough next month and cutting employee travel expenses by half, effective immediately, citing a memo to employees.
The closure will affect the company’s headquarters in suburban Nashville and assembly plants in Smyrna and Decherd, Tennessee and Canton, Mississippi, the report said.
(Nissan hopes to minimize impact of Brexit)
Nissan Group announced total U.S. sales for November 2019 of 92,947 units, a decrease of 15.9% compared to the prior year. The Nissan division’s sales were down 13.3% while its Infiniti luxury brand slid 33.4%.
Are they going to report sales on the 3rd like everyone else?
I bet those plant workers are glad they voted down the Union now!!! lol I hope they like their 2 days of unpaid time off! This will be just the beginning for them.
NisFinity make ugly, overrated vehicles. They are all but buying market share in the commercial vehicle segments too, and their sales are still in the dumpster. Maybe time to stop selling fake luxury infinity, dump the failed pick up truck experiment Titan, and its offshoots, and just do what it does best; Dump its product into rental car agencies with cheap vehicles just like Toyota, Hyunkia, and Mazda.