Swedish telecom network giant Ericsson plans to shut down all its remaining production plants in Sweden, Svenska Dagbladet (SvD) reports in a front-page exclusive Thursday. The Stockholm daily cites internal documents, which would confirm the end to the Swedish company's more than 140-year-old tradition to keep at least part of its production at home, a sign of the deepening troubles for Ericsson in the face of steep high-tech competition from Silicon Valley to South Korea.
According to the daily, Ericsson plans to close its network product plants in Borås and Kumla, which would result in nearly 3,000 jobs being slashed.
SvD calls the move "historic", saying the closures are due to the company's need to save up to 3 billion kronor ($350 million) in costs. In the internal report viewed by SvD, Ericsson says: "We are ending a more than 140-year-old production era, corresponding to the largest Ericsson staff cuts in Sweden ever."
Citing anonymous sources, the newspaper writes that the plan has already been presented to management and acting CEO Jan Frykhammar. A decision on the cost-cutting measures is expected shortly.
Once one of the global leaders within the telecom industry, Ericsson has struggled amid increasingly steep competition. In 2011, it sold off its 50% stake in Sony Ericsson, effectively ending its mobile phone production to entirely focus on its telecom infrastructure business. The company currently has a total of some 15,000 staff in Sweden.
