Kettler says it has negotiated with employee representatives a rescue plan involving the elimination of 198 jobs as part of wider restructuring measures. The German fitness and leisure equipment company went into self-administered receivership in June, while several investors were said to show interest in the family-owned company. Creditors supported the continuation of the business at a meeting earlier this month. Some of the measures negotiated with employee representatives were presented to the staff in Germany earlier this week. The redundancies are far less drastic than feared in June, when some reports estimated that 400 out of about 1,100 jobs at Kettler in Germany would be slashed. Kettler added that it would come up with a plan for the bicycle manufacturing unit in Hanweiler in the short term. The management aims to finalize the restructuring package in December. Kettler could then come out of receivership before the end of the year and start handling outstanding claims from creditors, with the company remaining in the hands of the late founder's family.

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