Philips to cut 4,500 jobs

Electronics company Philips is to cut 4,500 jobs after announcing its profits nearly halved during the summer.

Philips, which employs 116,000 staff globally, including several thousand in the UK, is looking to save 800 million euro (£701.4 million).

It has not yet spelled out where the job cuts will fall, apart from saying that 1,400 staff will go in the Netherlands, where the company is based.

Underlying profits fell 76 per cent to 368 million euro (£322.7 million) in the third quarter of 2011, while revenues were down 1 per cent to 5.4 billion euro (£4.7 billion) as the company continues to suffer as consumers rein in spending on goods such as lighting, shavers and blenders.

Chief executive Frans van Houten said the job losses were "a regrettable but inevitable step to improve our operating model to become more agile, lean and competitive".