Job cuts at Purac
as the firm's owner, bakery ingredients supplier CSM, continues its
restructuring programme to strengthen core activities.
Dutch €2.8 billion CSM will shed 65 out of 380 jobs in a move that will "particularly affect Purac biochem (Gorinchem) and Purac glucochem (Ter Apelkanaal)."
Explaining the job cuts, CSM said strategy "will improve efficiency".These are the latest losses in a series of cost-cutting moves by CSM.
Earlier this year, in part of its "zero-tolerance approach to loss-making activities" the Diemen-based company closed four of its bakery ingredients distribution units in the US, slicing away nearly 150 jobs and bringing savings of about €60 million in turnover.
And in April CSM cleared the sale of its sugar confectionery unit Malaco Leaf in a €850 million deal to investment companies Nordic Capital and CVC Capital Partners.
Earlier that same month, CSM had sold off its Swedish subsidiary BakeMark Sweden to private equity group Accent.
The Purac restructuring is due for completion in 2006.
Earlier in June, rising costs for chemical raw material sources, as well as energy and packaging materials, pushed Purac to hike up the price of itslactic acid and lactate products by between five and ten per cent.
