Kellogg’s Layoffs Hit Florida

Breakfast food giant Kellogg’s is continuing mass layoffs, this time focusing on its distribution center in Weston, Florida, where up to 246 workers have now lost their jobs.

The workers will be laid off starting early in July and continuing until the first week of August, according to a notice filed with Florida’s Department of Economic Opportunity, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported.

The layoffs come as Kellogg’s decided to end its direct-to-store distribution model and to switch to a warehouse-style system. The new plan included the closing of 39 distribution centers around the country and the elimination of over 1,000 jobs.

“While this is the right move for the future of the company, it was a difficult decision because of the impact on affected employees,” John Bryant, chairman and chief executive of Kellogg, said in a statement. “We are doing everything we can to help our employees manage through this transition.”

“Eliminated positions based at the facility include 179 merchandisers (including 119 employed part time), two merchandise managers, four district sales managers, 34 sales representatives, 15 truck drivers, eight warehouse operators, a distribution center manager, a transportation manager, a warehouse manager and a zone scheduler,” the Sun-Sentinel reported.

The layoffs in Florida are but a small part of the string of losses announced recently. Among other announcements, nearly 300 were fired in facilities in New York early in May, and only a week later another 219 lost their jobs in Minnesota.

The cuts came on the heels of several announcements by the cereal maker that it was slashing its workforce.

Kellogg’s has been struggling over the last few years, so much so that by 2016 customer confidence in its brand name had fallen from 60th to 84th place.

The company’s fall from grace coincided with Kellogg’s decision last year to cease advertising with Breitbart News, thereby snubbing Breitbart’s 45,000,000 readers.

In November of last year, Kellogg noted that the conservative readers at Breitbart News are not “aligned with our values as a company.”

While the decision by Kellogg to cease advertising made virtually no revenue impact on Breitbart.com., it did represent an escalation in the war by leftist companies like Target and Allstate against conservative customers whose values propelled Donald Trump into the White House.

After the cereal maker turned its back on conservative customers, Breitbart News launched its #DumpKelloggs petition, which has been signed by more than 450,000 people.

Finally, according to advertising industry watchdog Adweek, Kellogg’s decision to pull advertising from Breitbart and the ensuing controversy over the move inflicted long-term damage to the cereal company’s brand online.

Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail.com.