FRANKFURT -- Robert Bosch GmbH said Tuesday it expects to post a significant full-year loss, the German engineering group's first annual loss since World War II, as revenue is anticipated to shrink by around 15% on the year, reflecting the steep downturn of the auto industry. "At the end of 2009, Bosch Group is likely to employ around 270,000 staff, 10,000 less than at the beginning of 2009," Bosch Chief Executive Franz Fehrenbach said on the sidelines of the Frankfurt auto show, adding that the company's automotive operations will account for the largest chunk of cutbacks. So far, the world's biggest supplier to the automotive industry by sales expected revenue to shrink by between 10% and 15%. In 2008, Bosch posted about â¬45.1 billion ($65.8 billion) in revenue. Mr. Fehrenbach said further cutbacks might become inevitable if the economic environment doesn't improve, but added that there are signs for an upturn slowly gaining some traction. "In recent months, we see a slight upward trend [starting] from a very low level," Mr. Fehrenbach said, noting that these signs aren't purely driven by the state-backed scrapping incentives introduced in many markets. However, he said that it will probably take until 2012 before markets reached pre-recession levels -- those seen in 2007 -- again. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125301303186011599.html Ay, ay, ay...Imagine a company never made a loss for 64 years...
What if they were to sell products that are less reliable and that would have to be replaced more often?