Despite endless denials from Maranello, Ferrari – the world’s preeminent sports car maker – could be facing a sales crisis. The Italian automaker is planning to cut up to 10 percent of its workforce by the end of the week, largely thanks to dwindling global sales.
According to Autocar, Ferrari could eliminate 300 positions by this Friday. “What’s being talked about [with the unions] is not renewing the people on one-year contracts, which would be about 300 people, and closely examining the consultancies and advisors and that kind of spending,” a Ferrari spokesman said.
In addition to the job cuts, Ferrari will also idle production for 20 days beginning later this month.
Ferrari denies that the job and production cuts are due to falling sales, but the writing could be on the wall for the Italian automaker. Although Ferrari still has waiting lists in some parts of the world, monthly sales have plummeted from about 600 cars a month to just 92 in November. Moreover, insiders say the V12-powered Ferrari 612 Scaglietti and Ferrari 599 Fiorano have seen a tremendous drop-off, with both models being moved to the company’s customization program to mask the slump.
The smaller F-430 isn’t fairing well, either, with sales stalling shortly after the unveiling of the new California.
Ferrari is sticking to its plan of selling 10,000 vehicles annually by 2010, but that goal looks rather lofty considering the current state of the global economy.
