Danone plans to cut 1,850 jobs worldwide, including 458 in France, the food giant said in a statement Thursday.
This is a little less than the "up to 2,000 job cuts", including 400 to 500 in France, which had been mentioned during the presentation of the reorganization project in November.
The agri-food giant Danone plans to cut 1,850 jobs worldwide, including 458 in France as part of its reorganization project announced in November, he said in a statement on Thursday.
This is a little less than the "up to 2,000 job cuts", including 400 to 500 in France, which had been mentioned during the presentation of this plan by the former CEO Emmanuel Faber.
An information-consultation procedure which "should be spread over several months"
The board of directors, which ousted Emmanuel Faber in mid-March amid a crisis of mistrust of some of the shareholders, had not disowned this plan called "Local First".
Supposed to generate savings and increase the profitability of the group of 100,000 employees, it puts an end to a structure that brought out three major businesses (Dairy and plant-based products, Specialized nutrition, Waters) for the benefit of an organization by geographical areas, in order to give more autonomy to the countries in which Danone operates.
“Local First” began to be detailed Tuesday and Wednesday to the group's staff representatives, indicates Danone France in its press release, specifying that the information-consultation procedure “should be spread over several months”.
"The project could result in the net loss of around 1,850 jobs worldwide, including 458 in France, in line with estimates shared when the study was launched in November," it is reported.
But according to Denis Enfert, CGT coordinator at Danone, management "minimizes" the impact for the 8,000 French employees of the group.
"Increase profitability to better remunerate shareholders"
Danone France is running in parallel with "Local First" a project to pool sales teams which, according to him, results in "a little less than 100" additional job cuts.
The management affirms that this "reorganization of the sales force" aims "to make these more efficient to generate growth".
In the end, "more than 1,100 jobs (which) will be cut in France" among administrative employees, managers and directors, while "a little more than 600" will be created, declares the union representative at the 'AFP.
"This will turn the lives of more than 1,000 employees upside down even if they are not thrown out", he points out, believing that this project imagined by Emmanuel Faber "suits well" the new chairman of the board of directors Gilles Schnepp which "wants to increase profitability to better remunerate shareholders".
According to management, discussions with staff representatives "will relate in particular to the establishment of a plan to safeguard employment with a period of voluntary service".
"The implementation of this plan would be carried out gradually over several months in 2021 and 2022", adds Danone.