Duke Energy planning to cut about 2,000 jobs

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Duke Energy Corp. plans to slash about 2,000 jobs, or 8 percent of its work force, and expects to post a lower-than-expected annual profit after reporting a 79 percent drop in its third-quarter earnings.

The company said Thursday the decline in its third-quarter results reflected mild summer weather and poor conditions in its nonregulated businesses.

“The work hasn’t been fun and it hasn’t been easy, but medicine is not supposed to taste good. It’s supposed to make you feel better,” outgoing chairman and chief executive Rick Priory told analysts on a conference call.

“I believe we’re on the road to recovery, but the market suggests it won’t be a short road,” said Priory, who will turn over control of Duke Energy this weekend to former Duke Energy president Paul Anderson.

Duke Energy, based in Charlotte, employs 25,000 people. No job cuts are expected in the 20-person staff at Duke’s Maine Independence power generator facility in Veazie, according to plant manager Gonzalo Garcia.

The global energy company reported earnings of $49 million, or 5 cents per share, for the July-September period compared with $230 million, or 27 cents per share, in the third quarter of 2002. “You were expecting a great quarter and we were expecting to deliver one to you,” Priory told the analysts.

Excluding one-time items, Duke earned 35 cents a share. The consensus estimate of analysts surveyed by research firm Thomson First Call was for earnings of 36 cents a share.