*NEWS*EPSON LAYS-OFF ANOTHER 3000 WORKERS

Seiko Epson Widens Loss Forecast to 23 Billion Yen
March
06 — Seiko Epson Corp., the world’s second-biggest printer maker,
widened its full-year net loss forecast to 23 billion yen ($196
million) from 14 billion yen citing a charge for reorganizing.
Seiko
Epson maintained its sales, operating profit and current profit
forecasts for the year ending March 31, according to a statement filed
today to the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
The Suwa, Nagano-based company on Jan. 27 said it would cut its workforce in Japan by 11 percent over three years.
Shares
of the company today rose 75 yen, or 2.6 percent, to 3,010. It
announced the wider loss forecast after the close of regular trading.

Seiko Epson’s medium-term business plan includes 3,000 job cuts
(Kyodo)JAPAN
Printer manufacturer Seiko Epson Corp. announced Thursday a medium-term
business plan that includes cutting 3,000 jobs, mainly part-time and
contract workers, over the next three years.
The company said it
aims to reduce fixed costs and increase business efficiency as it has
been seeing declining profitability due to falling prices for its
mainline products of printers and liquid crystals.
The plan also includes eliminating 100 full-time positions from its information technology equipment business in Europe.
In
Japan, Seiko Epson will reduce the scale of its office in Nagano
Prefecture that produces small liquid crystals and transfer the
business to Hokkaido.
Seiko Epson will also narrow the lineup of its
printers to sell only high profit-margin products, while consolidating
its semiconductor manufacturing bases.
By implementing those plans,
Seiko Epson expects its group pretax profit to rise to over 100 billion
yen in the year through March 2009 from a projected 26 billion yen in
fiscal 2005 that ends March 31.