Chocolate giant Barry Callebaut is cutting 2,500 jobs worldwide

There have been drastic job cuts at the world’s largest chocolate manufacturer Barry Callebaut, which has its headquarters here. As new company director Peter Feld first said in an interview, the company is likely to cut around 2,500 jobs.

This means that almost 18 percent of jobs will fall victim to the austerity program announced last fall, a spokesperson told AWP. As is known, the company wants to save 250 million francs annually. This corresponds to 15 percent of the costs.

The reduction will be implemented over the next eighteen months, the CEO told the German Handelsblatt. We are already in discussions with the employee representatives.

Reduce complexity

Feld justifies the reduction with the structure: Until last year, the company was run as four companies: a chocolate company in the US, one in Europe, one in Asia and the global cocoa sector. “We never decided to standardize processes worldwide”Field said.

It’s about reducing complexity and eliminating duplication and inefficient structures, he told the German business newspaper.

The CEO told Handelsblatt that they are already in discussions with employee representatives. It is not clear from the interview whether the 2,500 positions are the final number. The company’s announcement simply states that the cost-saving measures “may” include a reduction of this magnitude.

Impact on Switzerland still unclear

The information also does not show how many jobs are involved in Switzerland. However, since the company is headquartered in this country and now wants to centralize various tasks, especially in the administrative field, it can be assumed that that Switzerland will probably come off lightly when it comes to decommissioning.

Meanwhile, job cuts are not the only measures the new management under Feld is taking. According to the spokesperson, it was also decided to close a factory in Norderstedt (Schleswig-Holstein) near Hamburg and one in Port Klang, Malaysia.

(sda/awp)