Mon, Feb 26th 2024
Barry Callebaut’s Bold Move: Streamlining for Success with “BC Next Level” Plan
The world’s largest chocolate manufacturer, Barry Callebaut, is making drastic job cuts. According to CEO Peter Feld, the company has failed to position itself properly in the past, and almost a fifth of its employees will now lose their jobs. Around 2,500 jobs are likely to be eliminated.
With a savings plan called “BC Next Level,” which was announced last fall, the company aims to save 250 million Swiss francs annually in the future. Apparently, job cuts are one of the most critical measures for the chocolate company to achieve its savings targets.
Until last year, the company was managed as four companies, said Feld. There was a chocolate business in the USA, one in Europe, one in Asia, and a global cocoa business. “We never decided to standardize the processes worldwide,” said Feld. It is precisely this duplication of work and inefficiency that the wave of redundancies is intended to reduce.
How many jobs are affected in Switzerland is also not clear from the information provided. However, as the company has its headquarters in Switzerland and now wants to centralize various tasks, particularly in the area of administration, Switzerland will probably get off lightly in terms of job cuts.
The job cuts are just one measure being taken by the new management under Feld’s leadership. According to the spokesperson, it has also been decided to close a factory in Norderstedt (Schleswig-Holstein) near Hamburg and one in Port Klang, Malaysia.
©Keystone/SDA
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