BMW is laying off 8,000 people, but says it will be “socially acceptable.”
BMW does not have any trouble selling cars. Sales of BMW Group, which includes Mini and Rolls-Royce, rose 13.2 percent in November, compared with the previous year, and are running 8.3 percent ahead of 2006 for the year to date. BMW delivered almost as many cars in the first 11 months of this year - 1.347 million vehicles - as it did in all of last year.
But BMW’s profitability has sagged as the cost of producing each vehicle has risen. At roughly 6 percent, its return on sales trails that of Mercedes, which is on track to earn more than 8 percent in 2007.
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