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Int'l Paper to cut 2,000 jobs
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January 11, 2000: 7:29 p.m. ET
Paper giant pares 2% of workforce to boost profits as Q4 results top targets
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - International Paper Co., the world's largest maker of paper and wood products, said Tuesday it's cutting 2,000 jobs, or about two percent of its workforce, in a move to boost profits.
Word of the job cuts emerged after IP posted a larger-than-expected rise in fourth-quarter profits as the company reaps benefits of its restructuring program.
Jack Cox, a spokesman for International Paper (IP), said the jobs cuts will be "across the board" both in the United States and overseas. "We want to look at every operation to make sure they are profitable," he said.
The layoffs are in addition to the 1,600 jobs cut after International Paper bought Union Camp Corp. in April. IP employs about 70,000 people in the United States and 30,000 abroad.
Shares of International Paper, one of 30 stocks in the Dow Jones industrials average, slipped 2-11/16 to 55-13/16.
The company also will look at the location of its facilities to determine if they are close enough to customers, and at production capacity.
International Paper said it took a $111 million charge in the fourth-quarter for costs associated with the new round of job cuts.
Q4 earnings top targets
Not including one-time items, International Paper, of Purchase, N.Y., earned $227 million, or 55 cents a diluted share, up from $58 million, or 14 cents a share, a year earlier.
Analysts polled by First Call Corp., an earnings tracking firm, had anticipated earnings of 51 cents a share for the latest period. The results have been adjusted to include its merger with Union Camp Corp. last year.
Including one-time items, mostly restructuring costs associated with the merger, the company earned $80 million, or 19 cents per diluted share, in the 1999 fourth quarter. That compares with profit of $46 million, or 11 cents per share, a year ago. Sales for the latest period totaled $6.3 billion, up 3 percent from the year-ago quarter.
For the full year, International Paper earned $183 million, or 44 cents a share, including special items, compared with $247 million, or 60 cents per share, in 1998. Sales rose to $24.6 billion from $24 billion.
Chairman and CEO John Dillon said conditions throughout the industry are solid, adding that the company's restructuring program is working.
"The results of these efforts are kicking in at the same time we are realizing the benefits of improvements in pricing," he said. 
-- from staff and wire reports
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