Columbia Music Entertainment Inc., a music and visual content provider, said Wednesday it will solicit early retirement applications from 110 members of its group workforce of roughly 800.
The move is designed to bolster group earnings by cutting back on personnel expenses, the company said.
Columbia Music incurred a group net loss of 1.47 billion yen in the first half through Sept. 30. Its sales in this period dropped 68.6 percent from the previous year to 13.24 billion yen.
Columbia, which adopted its new corporate name Oct. 1 in lieu of Nippon Columbia Co., is owned 33.69 percent by the group of companies led by Ripplewood Holdings LLC.
Columbia Music will solicit applications for its early retirement program between Feb. 28 and March 7. These early retirements will take effect March 20.
The company said it will provide those who consent to quit before reaching the mandatory retirement age with additional retirement allowances on top of regular benefits.
The firm will book an extraordinary loss from these allowances in the full-year book-closing on March 31, it said.