Basel, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Panalpina, the Basel-based freight forwarding company, announced slim profits of CHF15 million in a world freight market hit hard by the global economic crisis. Profits were down from CHF44.5m a year earlier. The company has cut costs significantly, including an 11 percent reduction in jobs, and it says that freight volume is up, 3 percent for air freight and 8 percent for ocean freight, but orders from large customers continued to fall during the period.
The company was also hit at the end of July 2009 with a court complaint in Texas, USA, from Deccan Value Advisors, a US-based investor with 5 percent of the company’s shares, over losses linked to stock market value of the company.
Patricia Francis, Richard Newfarmer
Ndioro Ndiaye
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The figures are starting to roll in and they are clear: women are being hit hardest by the economic global crisis and the way it affects them will define the longterm impact of the crisis.
Updated 15:40 Peoria, Illinois, USA (GenevaLunch) – Caterpillar, whose European government affairs office, with financial and marketing services, is in Geneva, announced Monday that it will cut 20,000 jobs in the expectation that 2009 will be its worst year since world war two.
First in a two-part series on the upswing in luxury hotels
Crans-Montana, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The global economy is in a morose state, with Switzerland predicted to join the recession in 2009. November figures for the hotel industry released 16 January show it may be starting to feel the impact: figures were down overall by 6.8% compared to 2007. The figures hide a number of discrepancies, though, one of which is that Valais was the only canton to show an increase, possibly thanks to good early snow. Geneva and Zurich showed the largest fall, but moderate-price hotels may have been hit harder than others.
The Swiss luxury hotel business is still counting on enough people having money to keep top hotels busy. Geneva’s palaces and niche luxury hotels have been busy investing in improvements, while in resorts, construction work continues unabated.
