French food group Danone has trimmed its restructuring plans, with estimated total job cuts now seen at around 1,600 globally versus a 2,000 figure announced last year, French business daily Les Echos reported.
The world's largest yoghurt company, Danone had unveiled its reorganisation in November 2020 with the aim of becoming leaner and more agile, saving €1 billion a year by 2023, in a post-COVID environment.
But Danone has since ousted chief executive Emmanuel Faber, who was replaced by Antoine de Saint-Affrique, and announced a nearly complete overhaul of its board, removing almost all its old-timers after clashes over the group's lacklustre profit margins and sales compared with some rivals.
Change Of Approach
"The plan should concern close to 1,600 job cuts globally and not affect the plants but (rather) executives, assistants and sales persons," Les Echos said, without quoting its sources.
Danone was not immediately available for comment.
In France only, job cuts have been revised to around 300 compared with an initial figure of 458, the newspaper added.
In the second quarter of its financial year, Danone reported a 6.6% increase in sales, ahead of expectations, however, recurring operating income slipped to €1.55 billion, a like-for-like decline of 4.2%, due to increased costs.
"Looking ahead, we reiterate our guidance for the full year," Véronique Penchienati-Bosetta and Shane Grant, interim co-CEOs, said at the time. "Although the macro context is still uncertain, we have strong foundations across our categories, geographies and brands."
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