AUGUST 18, 2008

The engine freeze hurts

Mecachrome International Inc, the Montreal-based engineering firm, has announced a second quarter loss of $18.7m. The news was announced at the same time as the firm said that chairman Gerard Casella would be taking over the roles of president and chief executive officer and would be restructuring the business to increase profitability. The company aims to break even in 2009 after making considerable cost savings. In July the company cut 41 jobs in Canada and 150 in France after having to adjust to reduced demand in its aerospace and F1 work. This resulted in the resignation of president and CEO Guillaume Casella. The company's chief financial officer Stephan Yazedjian said that all options except a sale or privatization of the company were being investigated. The losses in aerospace have been caused by the production delays of the Airbus A380, A400M and Boeing 787 models while F1's engine freeze have hurt as Renault, BMW and Toyota have all decided to do their development in-house rather than use Mecachrome expertise.