Ericsson to end manufacturing in Sweden, cut 3000 jobs

Telecoms equipment maker Ericsson plans to end manufacturing in Sweden with the loss of around 3,000 jobs, Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet reported late Wednesday.

The daily said it had obtained "confidential documents" outlining a three billion kronor  (313-million-euro, $350-million) cost-cutting programme.

According to Svenska Dagbladet, 60 percent of the savings were to be made in Sweden, and the remainder abroad.

Ericsson was not immediately available for comment.

The company has around 116,000 employees worldwide, including 15,000 in Sweden.

The 3,000 manufacturing lay-offs would be in the company's core Networks division, the paper said.

If confirmed, the lay-offs would mark the end of an era: Ericsson has had production in Sweden since 1876.

Ericsson announced back in April that it would target structural changes by expanding an existing nine billion kronor global cost and efficiency programme to bolster efficiency and growth.

The newspaper report comes after Ericsson fired chief executive Hans Vestberg in July after seven years in the post.

Under his guidance, the company struggled to fend off competition from rivals Nokia, Siemens and Alcatel-Lucent, and to gain ground in saturated and competitive markets such as Europe and North America.

Ericsson's profits and sales plunged by 26 and 11 percent respectively in the second quarter.