Restructuring plan for the ATR Programme "ATR Integrated"
Toulouse, 10 May 2001
Alenia chairman Giorgio Zappa and the head of EADS Aeronautics Division, Dietrich Russell, have finalised their plan for the restructuring of the ATR programme and submitted it to the boards of Alenia/Finmeccanica and EADS ATR for approval.
This plan was presented to management and the unions on 10 May 2001. It calls for the establishment of "ATR Integrated" as of June 1 2001, subject to the accord of the management and employees' representatives, scheduled for May 23.
ATR Integrated will be formed out of the industrial operations (production, engineering, purchasing) of EADS ATR, the engineering and purchasing operations related to the ATR programme handled by Alenia and the sales and marketing operations currently handled by the ATR consortium.
The new entity will be formed as a "Groupement d'Intérêt Economique" or GIE (a French legal construct for companies that do not make profits or losses in their own right), but with certain modifications which give it a greater degree of operational autonomy. All personnel will retain their present status. The workforce will thus consist of a mix of staff assigned by the members of the consortium and "direct" ATR staff. Looking beyond the new agreement, thought will then be given to the possibility of developing the consortium into a fully fledged company. Through this move, Alenia and EADS have demonstrated their mutual will to strengthen the ATR programme by providing a framework within which to enhance its operational parameters and efficiency.
Under the new structure, agreements with industrial partners will take the form of subcontracts which nevertheless give them greater scope for self-determination, enabling the programme to be managed more efficiently and allowing it to improve its market response. It is hoped that these gains in efficiency will be accompanied by significant cost savings on the operational side and allow resources to be deployed more flexibly, with the aim of achieving even better results in the programme.
The names of the members of the ATR Integrated management team will be officially announced after the board meetings at Alenia/Finmeccanica and EADS ATR. Alenia and EADS are confident that the efficiency and professionalism of their staff will lead this new phase of the programme to its deserved success.
