Pepsi-maker PepsiCo will lay off hundreds of employees at the headquarters of its North American snacks and beverages vertical. These layoffs will affect the company’s North American beverage business, which is based in Purchase, New York, and the North American snacks and packaged-foods business, which are headquartered in Chicago and Texas, respectively.
In a memo to employees accessed by The Wall Street Journal, Bellwester said these layoffs are “to simplify the organization so we can work more efficiently.” There will be more layoffs in the beverages business as compared to the snacks vertical. That’s because the snacks vertical has trimmed positions in conjunction with a voluntary retirement program, according to the WSJ.
PepsiCo makes Doritos Nachos, Lay’s Potato Chips, and Quaker Oats, in addition to its namesake soft drink. The food and beverages giant employs approximately 309,000 people worldwide, including approximately 129,000 in the US.
PepsiCo and other food and beverage companies are raising prices to cover the high cost of raw materials (corn, sugar, and potatoes), transportation, and labor. Despite the increase in prices, demand for food items at grocery stores has remained strong.
In October, PepsiCo raised its full-year revenue and earnings estimates following better-than-expected sales in the third quarter due to higher prices. “We’re watching carefully what happens with the consumer,” PepsiCo CFO Hugh Johnson said in a conference call with investors. We obviously exited the third quarter with consumer in terms of our specialty categories.
“I’m not sure that’s broadly true with housing and other big-ticket purchases,” he said.
With this, PepsiCo joins companies such as e-commerce behemoth Amazon, Facebook-parent Meta, food delivery firm DoorDash, cable TV network AMC Networks, banking giant Citigroup, media giant CNN, cryptocurrency exchange Kraken, Morgan Stanley, chipmaker Intel, software giant happened. Microblogging platform Twitter led by Microsoft and Elon Musk.
US-based companies, from tech majors to food delivery firms to banks, are reeling under job cuts and wage cuts as corporate America braces for a possible economic downturn and persistent inflation.
(with agency inputs)
Read also: CNN layoffs: Hundreds affected by CNN layoffs; ends live programming on HLN
