The dialysis provider Fresenius Medical Care is fighting against cost pressure and the consequences of the corona crisis with an austerity program.
With leaner structures, only two global pillars in the operating model and the shedding of 5,000 international jobs, the subsidiary of the health care company Fresenius wants to reduce annual costs by 500 million euros by 2025, as FMC announced on Tuesday in Bad Homburg.
In the future, FMC intends to concentrate on the business with products for dialysis centers, home dialysis and intensive care medicine as well as those with health services for people with chronic kidney disease, which make up the lion's share of sales.
The company expects the first net savings by the end of 2023. The one-off investments required for the program should be between 450 and 500 million euros.
FMC has been troubled by the corona pandemic for a long time.
Many people with chronic kidney disease die with or from the coronavirus, which reduces the number of treatments in the Group's own dialysis centers.
In the third quarter, the delta variant caused excess mortality to rise again.
The costs of safety measures for patients and employees are also high.
As early as spring, FMC warned investors of a result kick this year.
In the third quarter, the group recorded a slight increase in sales, but a drop in earnings by more than a fifth, as FMC announced on Tuesday.
Fresenius Medical Care operates around 4,100 dialysis centers for kidney patients around the world and cares for around 345,000 patients there.
In people with kidney failure, the blood must be cleaned regularly using dialysis.
At the same time, FMC is a leading supplier of dialysis products such as dialysis machines, dialyzers and related disposable accessories.