6,000 jobs to go in BASF ‘realignment’

BASF is planning an ‘organisational realignment’, in order to streamline itself and accentuate the roles of the services and the regions, starting from 1 January 2020. As a result, the company will cut about 6,000 jobs by the end of 2021 and secure savings of €300 million. This is all part of the ongoing ‘excellence programme’, which is expected to boost earnings by €2 billion/year from 2022 onwards.

“We will set up the new organisation with a clear focus on leveraging synergies, reducing interfaces and enabling flexibility and creativity,” said Dr Martin Brudermüller, chairman of the executive board (above). “We want our customers to experience a new BASF. To achieve this, we have to live a new BASF.” The lost jobs will mainly come from central functions like strategy, finance, legal, HR and communications, as BASF separates steering and governance from services.

The future corporate centre will employ fewer than 1,000, mainly supporting the board in steering the company. Some positions will also go from the operating divisions. Other jobs will be added in time in fields like production and digitalisation.

As part of its transformation, BASF will establish a new Global Business Services unit, under Marc Ehrhardt, currently head of the Finance division. Along with the existing Global Engineering Services, Global Digital Services and Global Procurement units, it will offer services, including those now carried out at corporate level, to individual sites or business units worldwide. Collectively, they will employ 29,000.