Kellogg Company to cut 212 jobs in Battle Creek

BATTLE CREEK, Mich. — Kellogg Company announced plans to cut 212 jobs at its Battle Creek plant over the next two years, the company confirmed Friday.

The layoffs include 174 hourly and 38 salaried jobs at the Kellogg's Porter Street plant in Battle Creek as the company streamline efforts and relocates cereal production across its ready-to-eat cereal network in North America, according to a company spokesperson. The jobs will be cut by the end of 2023, the Battle Creek-based company said.

"While this is the right thing to do for the business, any decision that impacts people is incredibly difficult," Kellogg spokesperson Kris Bahner said in a written statement. "We are committed to helping our talented and dedicated employees, and we are devoted to working with them and their union to ensure they have outplacement assistance, resources and support through this transition."

The Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers Union (BCTGM) Local 3-G President Trevor Bidelman said the company notified of him of the decision Friday morning.

Bidelman said he was blindsided by the layoffs. He said his union represents 174 hourly packaging department employees who are slated to be laid off. (BCTGM) Local 3-G represents 335 Kellogg employees at the Porter Street plant, Bidelman said.

Kellogg's Porter Street plant has 390 employees and is among the company's 47 locations worldwide, the company said.

At its peak in the early 1970's, the plant employed 4,000 people.

"The company has forgotten what these union members have done for the business," Bidelman said.

Kellogg Company has 31,000 employees worldwide as of 2020.

On Aug. 5, during its second-quarter company earnings conference call, Kellogg Company announced a stronger than expected second quarter of 2021, with a net sales increase of 3%, year on year.

Kellogg North America reported its second-quarter net sales decrease by approximately7%, while the operating profit declined 22% versus 2020 due to the pandemic helping boost consumer demand for ready-to-eat cereal products.

Kellogg announced efforts to streamline production at RTEC plants in 2017. In 2018, the company cut 223 jobs at the Porter Street plant.

Bidelman said the union will have the opportunity to study the pending decision and provide input before a decision is finalized. He said he expects the process will take approximately 60 days.

He said said union leadership is slated to begin negations with Kellogg next week and the union contract expires Oct. 5.

Bidelman said he thought Kellogg was making a statement to its union workers by announcing the layoffs before negotiations were set to begin.

"They are attempting to strike fear into the union membership's heart and instead what they have done is awoken a sleeping bear," he said.

A Kellogg Company spokesperson said the announcement is about positioning the company's' ready-to-eat cereal network for long-term success and is unrelated to upcoming contract negotiations.

Read full statement:

Kellogg Company is committed to improving our North American cereal business and positioning our Americas RTEC network for long-term success.

As such, we are implementing a robust commercial strategy that includes brand-building investments, capacity and capability investments at some of our RTEC plants, as well as ongoing innovation plans and we are seeing early signs of improvement.

In our ongoing analysis of our RTEC network, it’s clear that some locations are more cost-effective and better performing than others. We must ensure we have the right capacity in the right locations to reduce costs, increase efficiencies and become more competitive.

After very careful consideration and detailed analysis, we have presented a planned reallocation of cereal production across our RTEC Americas network. If these plans are finalized, they will deliver significant savings that could be reinvested into the business to drive growth and help to regain share.

These plans build on the streamlining efforts announced in 2017, some of which were previously completed.

While this is the right thing to do for the business, any decision that impacts people is incredibly difficult. We are committed to helping our talented and dedicated employees, and we are devoted to working with them and their union to ensure they have outplacement assistance, resources and support through this transition.

We also remain committed to Battle Creek. W.K. Kellogg founded our company here more than a century ago and the global headquarters of our organization remains here in our hometown, with a significant amount of employees and assets.