Nestle plans 400 job cuts in France in cost savings push

Nestle plans 400 job cuts in France as it looks to cut costs. Phil Noble / Reuters.

Nestle plans to cut as many as 400 jobs in France as the Swiss bottler of Perrier water cuts costs in that market, according to two union officials.

The Swiss food company announced the plan in a meeting with labour leaders, according to Daniel Loget, secretary of the worker’s consultation committee at Nestle Purina in Paris, and Patrick Fernand, a representative from the CGT union. Attrition may account for some of the reduction as Nestle consolidates seven sites around Paris into one. The company has 13,000 employees in France.

The announcement adds to the trickle of job cuts to come out during President Emmanuel Macron’s administration. Earlier this week, retailer Carrefour said it plans to eliminate 2,400 positions.

Union officials previously said Nestle’s total job cuts in France would probably exceed 1,000. The company already announced plans to eliminate most of the 550 jobs at its skin-health unit Galderma near the city of Nice.

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In November, the maker of Cailler chocolate and Herta lunch meats announced plans to consolidate seven sites around Paris under one roof by 2020, uniting businesses ranging from Nespresso to Purina.

Nestle France chief executive Richard Girardot has promised that every Paris employee would be offered continued employment at the new office in Porte de Versailles on the west side of the city.

The new multiyear efficiency program would create centers for support services such as purchasing and logistics throughout Europe and the world, in locations including Lisbon, Wroclaw, Poland, and Lviv, Ukraine, according to union representatives. About 2,000 people work in such services at Nestle’s French businesses, Loget said. The country is Nestle’s largest market in Europe by sales.

The efficiency push is part of a program that Nestle unveiled in 2014 to simplify its business-support structure. The company, Europe’s biggest by market value, had 328,000 employees worldwide in 2016.