The Cape Cod and Kettle Chips maker is closing its chips plant in Perry, Florida, which employs around 100 staff, at the end of September.
Brian Driscoll, president and CEO of Snyder’s-Lance said the decision was taken to enable the company to more effectively utilize the capacity of its remaining chip plants; and re-allocate resources to support growth objectives.
Mass layoff
Driscoll also announced the company is reducing its workforce by approximately 250 positions.
The job cuts will occur across the organization.
With about 6,100 employees, the latest layoffs equal about 4% of Snyder’s-Lance workforce.
“This has been a very difficult decision for our organization … however, this is a required first step to improve our financial performance, balancing costs and expected levels of profitability in a very competitive environment,” said Driscoll, who was recently permanently appointed CEO after the sudden departure of Carl E. Lee in April.
The company is trying to recover from “difficult challenges” that have weighed down its recent financial results.
Missed targets
In May, Driscoll said Snyder’s-Lance was “moving aggressively to take action” after reporting that, while profitable, the company missed growth targets.
Heavy promotional and marketing spending and higher business costs took its toll and Snyder’s-Lance reported a profit of $11.2m for Q1 2017. Net revenue for the quarter grew by 18.7% to $531.5m year-on-year but was behind the company’s forecast of $532m.
“We have been carefully examining the issues and challenges underlying our disappointing performance, and determining the appropriate pace and pattern of the changes we intend to make,” Driscoll said.
“The goal is to strengthen our foundation for the long-term, drive a sustainable, step change improvement in our performance, and deliver competitively superior returns to our shareholders.”
2017 Q2 results
The Charlotte, NC-headquartered company will provide a more detailed overview of its multi-year transformation plan when it reports its second quarter financial results on August 8.
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