As breakfast food giant Kellogg continues to contract, trimming its workforce by thousands of jobs, its latest round of layoffs hit North Carolina with nearly 500 employees informed they would be losing their livelihood.
The cereal maker recently informed the North Carolina Department of Commerce that it intends to close distribution centers in Charlotte and Greensboro by mid-August. The notice of the mass layoff was filed as per federal law with the commerce department this week, Charlotte Business Journal reported.
The company reported that 233 employees would lose their jobs in the Charlotte warehouse and another 250 layoffs will befall employees in Greensboro.
The job cuts are scheduled to begin at the end of July and carry on until August 11, a Kellogg’s spokesman said.
The company said in a statement:
While this is the right move for the company to achieve our long-term objectives, it was a difficult decision because of its impact on employees. As the distribution shifts from our network to our retailers’ networks, so too will the work. We’ve been actively engaged in conversations with some of our biggest retail partners who have expressed strong interest in hiring these employees for high-demand roles once the transition is complete. As a result, we are optimistic that our employees will find similar employment once this transition is complete.
The layoffs form part of a major reorganization project that has resulted in jobs being cut all across the country. The cuts began after the company announced it was slashing its workforce.
The layoffs in North Carolina are only the latest job cuts. A week ago about 200 workers were fired in Kansas City, and the week before that a distribution center in Florida was informed that 246 employees were being let go. In addition, early in May nearly 300 were fired in facilities in New York, and only a week later another 219 lost their jobs in Minnesota.
The cereal maker has been battling many problems, including the changing needs of its customers as food purchases have changed. Customer confidence in Kellogg’s brand name has also taken a hit, falling from 60th to 84th place over the last four years alone.
The company’s financial struggles coincided with Kellogg’s decision last year to cease advertising with Breitbart News, whose 45,000,000 readers, Kellogg said, are not “aligned with our values as a company.”
While the decision by Kellogg to cease advertising had no impact on Breitbart.com’s revenue, 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.