Unilever lays off staff at New York plants as part of restructuring strategy

By Amanda Pauley | Published: 21-Nov-2023
Manufacturing

The conglomerate has announced 169 job losses as it moves forwards with plans to restructure its beauty and personal care product manufacturing

Unilever is laying off 169 employees at its New York warehouses as part of wider changes to its beauty and personal care manufacturing.

The job losses will happen at the conglomerate’s Amityville and Farmingdale plants in Long Island, according to a filing to the New York Labor Department.

The majority of layoffs will occur at the Amityville location and be effective from 5 April 2024.

“Unilever is ending manufacturing of beauty and personal care products in Amityville in April of next year and will transfer production to other locations in our US manufacturing network,” read a statement from Unilever. 

“We will also end operations at the plant’s warehouse in Farmingdale.”

Unilever said affected employees can apply for jobs at other company locations.

They will be offered support via outplacement services and training programmes, and relocation assistance will also be provided.

The decision is part of Unilever’s wider restructuring of its beauty and personal care product manufacturing.

“We are realigning production to support our growth plans for these product categories as the Amityville factory site has considerable size constraints that limit its ability to expand,” read Unilever’s statement.

Unilever CEO Hein Schumacher announced the company’s new business strategy in October.

The aim is to streamline Unilever’s operations to focus on the 30 most successful brands in its portfolio.

These brands are said to be growing faster than the company average and in the beauty category include Dove, Dermalogica and Paula’s Choice.

These changes are aimed at boosting efficiency and focusing on areas of proven success within the company’s portfolio.

Unilever also opened a new €80m factory in the Philippines in October to serve the growing demand for personal care products in the country.

The investment aims to increase production levels for the FMCG giant’s Beauty & Wellbeing and Personal Care businesses by 15%.

As part of its new strategy, Unilever has sold male grooming brand Dollar Shave Club, retaining only a minority stake.

The beauty giant announced the news amid its third quarter sales drop news, and said that it was putting a pause on further acquisitions. 

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