
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, October 2, 1993                   TAG: 9310020070
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: A-6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: LONDON                                LENGTH: Medium

DUPONT CUTS JOBS IN EUROPE

DuPont, the U.S. chemicals giant already planning to trim more than half of its work force in Martinsville, said Friday it plans to eliminate nearly 1,200 jobs from its European nylon division. The cuts represent about 5 percent of its nylon division jobs worldwide.

The company said a glut of nylon on world markets forced it to make cutbacks, which are in addition to 1,600 job cuts already announced in its American nylon operation.

The job cuts in the United States will hit hardest in Martinsville, where DuPont plans to cut its nylon work force to 600 from 1,300.

Letters went out this week to 582 hourly workers at the Martinsville plant who could lose their jobs depending on how many above them in seniority take DuPont's early-retirement offer.

Company spokesman Rich Pattinson said the 45-day period in which workers could take the retirement offer began Friday and will end in mid-November.

Also, DuPont announced Friday a $160,000 grant to the Martinsville-Henry County Economic Development Corp. to hire a person to help find jobs for idled workers and to recruit new industries to the area.

"The marketplace has changed dramatically in a very short time, and we need to take strong actions to restore financial health and position our business for future growth," said Alan R. Titus, managing director of DuPont Nylon, Europe.

DuPont said 860 jobs will be lost in Britain, where it will close a plant in Pontypool, Wales, and scale back at three English locations: Gloucester, Doncaster and Wilton, near Salisbury. Another 200 jobs will go in Oestringen, Germany, where DuPont is cutting costs across the board.

An additional 80 jobs will be lost throughout Europe as the company shrinks its sales, marketing and administrative operations, DuPont said from its office in Geneva, Switzerland.

DuPont, which invented nylon early in the century, reorganized its corporate structure in May to create a separate global nylon division.

The company said its nylon operations generate annual revenue of $4.6 billion and employ some 21,000 people worldwide, but that cutbacks are necessary because too much nylon is available in global markets. The biggest problem is with nylon used for textiles, DuPont said.

writer Lon Wagner contributed to this story.

by CNB