Hydro reorganizes Agri

Hydro Agri is stepping up the pace of its turnaround program and further streamlining its operation by combining its fertilizer production and marketing divisions into a single unit: Hydro Plant Nutrition.

Agri is one of Hydro’s three core business areas, together with Oil and Energy, and Light Metals. The area is headed by executive vice president Thorleif Enger. In addition to Enger, the area’s new top management team consists of Daniel Clauw, Jon Reutz, Hallgeir Storvik and Audun Sørbotten.

Clauw, the new head of Hydro Plant Nutrition, previously led the area's market operations in Western Europe and North America. Reutz is serving as acting president for the business area's other division, Hydro Gas and Chemicals, while Storvik and Sørbotten are responsible for Hydro Agri's operational and support functions. Top management will be located in Oslo and Brussels.

Once the reorganization is complete, Hydro Plant Nutrition will include 10 regional business units and one separate unit for the fertilizer production plants that serve all markets. The managers of each regional unit will be responsible for developing all of Agri's activities in the specific region. Their scope of responsibility will also include production sites where the fertilizer products are directed toward the local market.

"I'm confident that this will create a stronger, more flexible and market-oriented organization that has more clarity in its lines of responsibility," says Enger. "There is reason to believe that simplification, reorganization and better coordination in sales, logistics, reporting and other support functions over the next few months, will enable us to reduce 500 to 700 positions in these areas."

The reorganization is taking place within the framework of the Hydro Agri Turnaround 2000 improvement program. Enger points out that the Agenda 99 improvement measures that were approved and implemented in the first quarter of 1999 are proceeding as expected. He adds that the same is true with regard to the planned shutdown of approximately 1 million metric tons of nitrate capacity from Hydro's plants in Immingham, UK, Landskrona, Sweden, and Montoir, France. All told, Hydro Agri Turnaround 2000 is expected to provide efficiency gains of around NOK 2 billion and a reduction of between 2,000 and 2,500 jobs in relation to the 1998 level.