MAINICHI
 
Major education service provider Benesse Holdings Inc. said Tuesday it will solicit voluntary retirement of some 300 employees at about 40 of its group companies to help cut costs under a restructuring program.
 
In its first voluntary retirement solicitation since its founding in 1955, the company will accept offers from Dec. 18 to the end of next March. Voluntary retirees will receive special benefits in addition to conventional retirement allowances.
 
Benesse, which was recently hit by a massive customer data theft by a system engineer on a temporary contract, said it has decided to accelerate the restructuring program in response to the revelation of the data leaks earlier this year.
 
Under the program, Benesse which had a workforce of about 20,000 as of late March this year also plans to move 700 group employees to growth areas such as nursing care, cram school education and consulting services by January. About 150 of them have already moved to these areas.
 
The program also calls for halving the number of Benesse group back-office workers to 450 by March.
 
Benesse said the restructuring program costs are reflected in its earlier announced earnings forecast for fiscal 2014 through next March, projecting a group net loss of 1 billion to 9 billion yen against the previous year's net profit of 19.93 billion yen.