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Fedex Seeks to Cut Up to 14,000 Jobs
Monday June 2, 8:18 pm ET
By Jonathan Stempel


NEW YORK (Reuters) - FedEx Corp. (NYSE:FDX - News), the largest overnight package deliverer, on Monday said it plans to cut up to 14,000 jobs from its main U.S. express delivery unit to save as much as $190 million a year.


The Memphis, Tennessee-based company said it expects to take a $230 million to $290 million pretax charge to pay for retirement and severance packages for management and salaried employees at its largest operating unit, FedEx Express, as higher pension and health costs hurt overall profit.

Sandra Munoz, a FedEx spokeswoman, said the company is offering the voluntary packages to about 12 percent of FedEx Express' 116,000 employees. The retirement and severance packages are not being offered to couriers, pilots, and customer service representatives, she said.

FedEx also said it expects to miss analysts' profit forecasts for its current quarter and fiscal 2004, excluding the charge, because of"significant increases" in pension and health care costs.

The company said it hopes starting in fiscal 2005 to save between $150 million and $190 million a year from the retirement and severance programs.

FedEx shares, which closed up 63 cents at $64.61 on the New York Stock Exchange (News - Websites), fell to $63.50 in after-hours trading on Instinet.

FedEx said it expects to take about one-third of the charge in cash. The rest, it said, relates mainly to pension and post-retirement health care costs. It said most of the charge will be in the fiscal year's first half.

The programs"are yet another step in (our) ongoing process of reducing our cost structure" to boost competitiveness, serve employees and increase its share price, said David Bronczek, FedEx Express' chief executive, in a press statement.

The company said it expects to save between $100 million and $130 million from the programs in fiscal 2004.

FedEx said it expects to post per share profit, excluding the programs, of between 52 cents and 60 cents in its fiscal 2004 first quarter, which ends Aug. 31, and between $3 and $3.15 for fiscal 2004. It said the programs should reduce full-year profit by between 25 cents and 30 cents.

Analysts polled by Thomson First Call (News - Websites) on average forecast per share profit of 61 cents for the first quarter and $3.19 for the year.