From the Montreal Gazette:
It has been a challenging year for the Cirque du Soleil. And rumours are flying that major layoffs may be announced soon, perhaps at this Wednesday’s annual meeting between head honchos and staff at the company’s Montreal headquarters. Or not.
Here’s what Cirque du Soleil’s Senior Director of Public Relations Renée-Claude Ménard replied to the Gazette’s query today about an online article published by an obscure Quebec online news source called Les News:
After refusing to respond directly to the article, she wrote, ”But I will confirm that Cirque is currently reviewing all its operations to ensure viable and controlled costs. As any other company would do. We have adjusted our production schedules and are operating close to 20 shows worldwide. Now we are adapting our workflow to this new reality.” In addition, she confirmed that Cirque CEO Daniel Lamarre and owner Guy Laliberté would, indeed, be meeting with Cirque employees this week, as they do every year.
The question, of course, is what they will be saying to employees this time around. Three other French-language news sources, of note, Le Devoir , Canoe.ca and Radio-Canada, soon followed up with their own guarded speculations about whether or not between 400 and 600 Cirque employees are about to be cut loose, mainly from the Montreal office, where over 2,000 of the company’s roughly 5,000 employees work. (About 30 employees plus three vice presidents already got their walking papers before Christmas.)
In fact, it would be abnormal if there weren’t layoffs at head office considering that four Cirque shows (Zed, Zaia, Viva Elvis and Saltimbanco) have closed over the past year and a fifth, Iris, in Los Angeles, is about to close this weekend (on Jan. 19, 2013). Each Cirque show employs about 200 people.
Even with the closings, 19 Cirque shows continue to please audiences around the world. In addition, the 3D film Cirque du Soleil, Worlds Away, is doing respectable business worldwide, although it didn’t prove as popular as one might have expected in Quebec. According to the IMBD company’s Box Office Mojo website, Worlds Away has brought in nearly $12 million since its Dec. 21, 2012 opening.
Read the original article here.
{ SOURCE: Montreal Gazette }
