Sweden's Skanska cuts 1,150 jobs in Poland

The main Polish subsidiary of Swedish construction group Skanska said Monday it was cutting 1,150 jobs in Poland, citing shrinking order books and sliding projected annual sales and weak sector growth.

"For several months we have seen public tenders falling and lower construction growth generally," said Piotr Janiszewski, chairman of Skanska S.A., said in a statement.

"Our priority remains good, viable and stable projects, alongside an increase in productivity," he added in confirming the redundancies.

Skanska S.A. is looking at sales down by a round a third on last year's 4.7 billion zlotys (1.8 billion euros/$2 billion) with order books showing a projected figure of 3.2 billion zlotys this year.

Skanska's three subsidiaries in Poland, Skanska S.A., Skanska Property Poland and Skanska Residential Development Poland, employ 8,000 people in total and 2015 sales came in at 5.5 billion zlotys for operating profits of 470 million.

Skanska group last week posted higher quarterly sales in Stockholm last week but the eight percent rise to 1.3 billion kronor (137 million euros/$150 million) came alongside an eight percent annual drop on the same period in 2015 to 37,2 billion kronor, below analysts' expectations.

Operating profit for the Swedish parent group was stable at 1.6 billion kronor below forecasts of 1.8 billion.