Uncle Warren Strikes Again: Kraft Heinz Cuts 2,500 Jobs
by Tyler Durden
ZeroHedge.com
08/12/2015
Thanks, Uncle Warren.
The Kraft-Heinz merger engineered earlier this year by everyone’s favorite folksy octogenarian billionaire along with 3G will cost some 2,500 people their jobs, as the combined entity looks to cut costs.
CEO (and 3G partner) Bernardo Hees has already slashed jobs on the Heinz side of things, so now it’s apparently time for Kraft employees to do their part to facilitate merger “synergies.”
Via AP:
Spokesman Michael Mullen says affected workers are in the U.S. and Canada and were to be notified in person.
About 700 of the cuts were coming at Kraft’s Northfield, Illinois, headquarters. The company would not specify where other cuts were taking place.
The Kraft Heinz Co. said it has a total of around 46,600 employees.
The job cuts are not surprising, given the reputation of the company’s management on Wall Street.
The combination of Pittsburgh-based Heinz and Kraft earlier this year was engineered by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway and Brazilian investment firm 3G Capital, which has become known for its tight cost controls.
Together, the two U.S. food giants own brands including Jell-O, Heinz baked beans and Velveeta that are facing sales challenges amid changing tastes. Their combination was nevertheless seen as attractive because of the opportunity to save hundreds of millions of dollars a year by combining functions like manufacturing and distribution.
In a statement, Mullen said Wednesday the job cuts were part of the company’s process of integrating the two businesses and “designing our new organization.”
“This new structure eliminates duplication to enable faster decision-making, increased accountability and accelerated growth,” Mullen said. He said employees will be given severance benefits of at least six months.
The Rest…HERE
