GE Access To Cut Workforce By 13 Percent

The news of cuts at GE Access, which will number around 75, follows on the heels of last month's announcement that Ingram Micro will make significant cuts to its business in an attempt to save around $160 million a year by 2004. As with the case of the cuts at Ingram Micro, the slow economy is the blame for the restructuring at Boulder, Colo.-based GEAccess.

"We've simply seen a softening in the IT industry," said GE Access president and CEO John Paget, adding that an anticipated uptick in business to the tune of 6 to 8 percent growth last year simply has not materialized.

"My crystal ball may look like glazed glass," he said candidly. While consumers continue to buy houses and cars thanks to incentives and low interest rates, the business climate for the IT products his company sells remains challenged, he said.

"In IT, many, many projects pushed off. Customers have done so for 12 to 14 months. We're probably close to bottom, but don't believe in any significant rebound in short term. Slowly, climb out of this," Paget said.

While there has been speculation that GE, GE Access' corporate parent, pressured Paget to make the cuts as part of some precursor to selling the business or some other maneuver, Paget insisted he made the decision to enact the cuts of his own accord. Not that it was easy, he added. Losing Minard will be especially tough, he said, noting that the two executives met every morning for breakfast when they were in town together.

In addition to Minard, GE Access will lose CIO Randy Grissom, vice president and general counsel Richard Winston, senior vice president Ross Churchill and operations vice president John Dardick. Their duties will be picked up by vice president Anna McDermott, who runs GE Access' Sun business, and Will Sumners, vice president of enterprise solutions at the company.