Barry Callebaut to cut 2,500 jobs

Swiss chocolade producer Barry Callebaut has announced a worldwide series of job cuts, meaning a total loss of 2,500 jobs. In Belgium alone, 500 positions will be terminated.

Room to invest

In an attempt to streamline its operations, Barry Callebaut is cutting one in five jobs over the next eighteen months. In an interview with German newspaper Handelsblatt, CEO Peter Feld says that the measure is necessary to make money available for further investments. Feld speaks of some 500 million euros that is needed to compensate for higher costs.

In Belgium, the company has started a procedure for collective redundancies as it plans to cut 500 jobs in its three Belgian locations, local newspaper De Tijd reports. The company itself has not confirmed the details leaked by the trade unions, but confirms it will keep its production plant in Wieze – the world’s biggest chocolate factory – open.