Profit-hungry Peugeot goes on a diet

PARIS, Sept. 27 (UPI) -- PSA Peugeot Citroen SA, Europe's second-largest carmaker, aims to cut its payroll by 10,000 as the French company implements broad-ranging cost cuts.

Besides reducing employment by about 6 percent, Peugeot plans to slash capital expenditure by $634 million, cancel a second production unit at its Trnava site in Slovakia and chop research and development costs by 15 percent.

The moves are necessitated by falling European sales.

Peugeot will achieve the payroll cuts by not replacing retiring Spanish and French workers, the two locations where its labor costs are the highest.

The company employs a total of 130,000 people in Europe and 208,000 worldwide, the Independent reported Wednesday.