Rolls-Royce to let 200 managers go in new round of cuts

Rolls-Royce Holdings is eliminating another 200 management jobs, further thinning the ranks at the embattled engine maker and backing off a pledge that the blood-letting was over.

With the new round of cuts, chief executive Warren East has trimmed more than 600 positions from Rolls-Royce's management as he tackles the company's bloated structure. The latest move suggests his efforts haven't produced the impact he was seeking after the executive indicated in May that the process of culling management was over.

The company is under pressure amid plans to double its output of aircraft engines by the end of the decade, backed by deliveries for Airbus’s A350 XWB and A330neo planes. That investment needs to be financed just as profitability suffers due to a slowdown in China and the collapse in the oil and gas market.

Mr East, who took charge of the London-based manufacturer last year, has said the company suffers from an overly complex structure that it makes it slow to respond to changes.

Rolls-Royce has been struggling amid a downturn in demand for marine engines and service revenues from its business-jet turbines. It set a target of stripping away as much as £200 million in costs by the end of 2017, part of an effort to get margins closer to rivals Pratt & Whitney and General Electric. – Bloomberg