KEYSTONE/© KEYSTONE / WALTER BIERI
The company plans 2,500 job cuts worldwide representing almost 20% of its workforce within a span of 18 months.
The information was revealed by CEO Peter Feld to the German newspaper Handelsblatt in an interview published on Monday.
“We have failed in the past to regularly assess our positioning for the future,” insisted Feld, who took the helm of the company in April 2023.
In September 2023, Barry Callebaut announced a programme of investment, which included major cost savings and an overhaul of the management team, which was reduced from nine to six members. Called “BC Next Level”, the programme includes a net investment of CHF 500 million in the “areas most important to customers”: innovation, service, sustainability and product quality. It should also generate savings of CHF250 million, according to the company.
This amount represents cost savings of 15%, a company spokesman confirmed to press agency AWP. For Peter Feld, these measures “could represent the reduction of 2,500 jobs worldwide”. “The aim is to reduce complexity and eliminate duplication and inefficient structures,” he said, adding that he was in dialogue with workers’ representatives.
According to the Belga agency, these measures could result in 900 jobs being cut in Europe, more than half of them in Belgium, where the group has a plant in Wieze and another in Hal. The former could lose 310 employees and the latter 210.
Translated from French by DeepL/ac
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