Rolls Royce announces huge profit losses, after 'severe' pandemic hit
Derby based Engine-maker Rolls-Royce has revealed annual underlying pre-tax losses of £4billion after a "severe" hit from the pandemic warned the outlook remained uncertain.
The group plummeted to the mammoth loss last year from profits of £583 million in 2019, as the coronavirus crisis hammered the global aviation industry.
In August last year, it announced a site in Annesley, Nottinghamshire, was to close - impacting around 120 people who work there. And in May they also said around 9000 jobs were to go from its global workforce by 2022.
The firm says its Civil Aerospace division, which is based in Derby, will be mostly affected by the restructuring of the business. Overall, two thirds of the overall job cuts announced last year were in the UK.
However, the group said it had taken "swift" action to slash costs by an extra £1 billion amid aims to save a total of £1.3 billion by 2022, including 7,000 job losses in 2020.
Speaking at a press conference this morning, CEO Warren East, said no one could have predicted what would happen in the last year.
"The impact of the pandemic is most acute for us," he said. "The reduction in flying activity resulted in engine flying hours at 43 per cent of the level we saw in 2019."
He added that maintenance activity was also down, while the company had delivered around half as many engines to customers as the year before.