Chery denies accusations that it will reduce its workforce by 9000 people

Gasgoo.com (Shanghai May 16) - Chery Automobile has officially denied reports that it is planning to reduce its staff by 9,000 people, the Economic Observer reported today. According to the manufacturer, the error comes from a misunderstanding of statements made by its departments.

According to various reports recently appearing across the industry, in order to complete its business reorganization and unification plans, Chery needs to reduce its total workforce from 33,000 staff to 24,000, equivalent to a labor cutback of over 25 percent.

"Chery is not implementing a staff reduction of such scale," a representative from Chery's public relations department stated. The representative further explains that in order to strengthen its focus on passenger automobiles, Chery's commercial vehicles departments, such as those working with the Karry brand, are being separated from the main company. Staff working in these departments will be transferred accordingly. Various media outlets have misinterpreted this news, reporting that these workers are instead being let go from their jobs.

The PR representative also made sure to point out that any actual staff cuts that Chery is making are well within reasonable limits and should not referred to as excessively large. "Naturally, there will be some staff that will leave [Chery], such as those workers who have not been at Chery for long and are not used to its changing work environment," the representative commented. "However, these instances are not widespread."

In a bid to increase sales and market share, Chery announced that it is preparing to unify its domestic and international sales networks, as well as halt its current multi-brand strategy, ending individual sales of its Rely and Riich brands. Chery plans to reduce its total product line up from the over 20 it currently offers to around 11 or 12 in the future. Manufacture of vehicles not within four specific product lines will be completely halted. The representative explains that the products being discontinued have incredibly low sales, with some of them bringing in just hundreds of sales per month. Therefore, the fact that Chery is stopping their manufacture does not signify it will reduce its workforce. Furthermore, the manufacturer ahs plans to develop several new models on new platforms in the future, which makes a mass staff reduction even more unlikely.