PepsiCo: 100’s In The Lay Off Bay

Hundreds of employees at the offices of its North American snack and beverage divisions will be let go by Pepsi manufacturer PepsiCo.

The company’s North American beverage division, situated in Purchase, New York, as well as its North American snacking and packaged-foods businesses, with headquarters in Chicago and Texas, respectively, would be affected by these layoffs.

According to the obtained a document from the food and beverage powerhouse that indicated these layoffs aim “to streamline the structure they can function more efficiently.” Compared to the food sector, the drinks industry will experience a greater number of job layoffs.

This is due to a voluntary retirement programme that has reduced employment in the snacking sector, according to the report.

In addition to its signature iced beverage, PepsiCo produces Quaker Oats, Lays potato chips, and Doritos nachos. Around 309,000 employees were employed by the multinational food and beverage company globally, including about 129,000 in the US.

Price increases are being implemented by PepsiCo and other food and beverage manufacturers to offset rising costs for raw commodities (corn, sugar, and potatoes), transportation, and labour. Food and drink have remained in high demand in supermarket stores despite price increases.

In October, PepsiCo raised its full-year revenue and earnings forecast after better-than-expected third-quarter sales due to high prices.

PepsiCo CFO Hugh Johnston said at a conference call with investors, “We are carefully watching what happens with the consumer. We obviously exited the third quarter with the consumer still very healthy in terms of our particular categories.”

He added, “I’m not sure that’s true broadly with housing and other big-ticket purchases.”

PepsiCo is joining organisations like e-commerce behemoth Amazon, Facebook parent company Meta, food delivery service DoorDash, cable TV network AMC Networks, banking behemoth Citigroup, media behemoth CNN, cryptocurrency exchange Kraken, Morgan Stanley, chipmaker Intel, software behemoth Microsoft, and Elon Musk-led microblogging platform Twitter with this move.

As corporate America prepares for a probable economic slump and chronic inflation, US-based businesses, including IT giants, food delivery services, and banks, are cutting jobs and wages.