Arctic Cat cuts 60 jobs

One of Minnesota's major snowmobile and ATV manufacturers has announced it will cut jobs as consumers continue to tighten their belts.

Thief River Falls-based Arctic Cat will eliminate 60 positions, or approximately 5 percent of its 1,200 employees, the company said in a statement.

Arctic Cat reported a net loss of $9.5 million for the 2009 fiscal year that ended on March 31. That's compared to a net loss of $3.3 million in fiscal 2008.

"Arctic Cat was profitable through the first nine months of fiscal 2009, due to increased snowmobile sales to dealers and distributors and lower operating expenses, but overall retail demand for recreational products remained weak in the fourth quarter as expected," said Arctic Cat CEO Christopher A. Twomey.

"In light of the difficult retail environment, we continued our plan to further reduce dealer inventories during the quarter, resulting in lower inventory levels across all product lines. However, this necessary action negatively impacted the company's revenue and profitability for the fourth quarter and full year," Twomey said.

In January, Arctic Cat cut 100 workers, trimmed employee benefits, cut production at its Thief River Falls plant and Arctic Cat executives took a five percent pay cut.