Black & Decker Corp. reported sharply higher profits yesterday and revealed plans for some American-style downsizing in its lagging European divisions: the elimination of jobs.
The company said it will cut 1,100 jobs from its European tool business and "targeted restructuring programs in certain other units.,"
A spokeswoman declined to be more specific, saying the moves are still being planned. But most of the shrinking will happen in Europe, she said.
By cutting 4 percent of its global work force, Black & Decker will become the latest corporation to wipe out jobs even as its profits float upward.
The Towson-based tool maker earned $34.6 million in the first quarter of 1996, it reported yesterday. That's a 35 percent increase from the same period in 1995 and more than half of what Black & Decker earned during all of 1993.
Black & Decker officials and Wall Street analysts downplayed the chances that big job cuts will spread to the company's U.S. operations. Black & Decker employs about 3,000 people in Maryland and 29,300 worldwide.
"The North American power tool business is in extremely good shape," said spokeswoman Barbara Lucas.
Of large job cuts, she said, "this is a European issue."
Mrs. Lucas was unable to say how many people Black & Decker employs in Europe; one financial analyst estimated that it's between 8,800 and 10,000.
Black & Decker stock rose by 25 cents per share yesterday to $36.875.
Financial analysts credited its higher profits in part to booming U.S. sales of new gadgets: Black & Decker's SnakeLight flexible flashlight, its VersaPak cordless power tools and its DeWalt line of power tools for professionals.
U.S. unit sales of the company's consumer items jumped by 12 percent for the January-March quarter.
But unit sales of consumer products in Europe, which make up about a fourth of Black & Decker's total business, dropped by 3 percent for the quarter. Profits there have been soft, too, analysts said, partially because of the sluggish European economy.
Through cost cutting, Black & Decker thinks its European results can improve even if the economy there doesn't. Like many multinational corporations, Black & Decker once organized its European units nation by nation, granting relative independence each.
