[K]eurig Green Mountain said Thursday that 200 of the 330 company-wide job cuts it plans will occur in Vermont.
Suzanne DuLong, spokesperson for Keurig Green Mountain, said “the majority” of the Vermont workers being laid off help produce the company’s single-serve hot beverage machines at the Waterbury facility.
Keurig has employees at five facilities in Vermont: Waterbury, Essex, Williston, South Burlington, and a research and development center in Waterbury Center. The company has not broken down the exact number of workers at each location who would be laid off.
But DuLong said “a significant majority of the affected employees” would be notified by the end of the day Thursday. She declined to say when those workers’ last day would be. All workers are eligible for severance packages based on how long they have worked for the company, and they may qualify for unemployment benefits.
“The decision to eliminate jobs is always a difficult one. It impacts friends and neighbors,” DuLong said. “We remain very committed to our operations in Vermont and plan to continue to be one of the state’s largest employers.”
The company announced late Wednesday afternoon that it would cut 5 percent of its workforce in North America, or about 330 workers, but did not say how many would be in Vermont until Thursday. The company says it wants to operate more efficiently over the course of a three-year cost-savings plan.
The publicly traded company’s stock plunged to around $50 today — signaling that the market was reacting to the company’s disappointing revenue announcement. The company has already decided to increase its dividend from 25 cents to 28.75 cents per share and undergo a $1 billion stock buyback.
Early Thursday morning, a law firm also reminded investors they might be able to join a class-action lawsuit that alleges Keurig misrepresented financial information earlier this year. Analysts told the Wall Street Journal’s Market Watch the company’s plan for a buyback and layoffs are also “telling” that the business is in trouble.
On the bright side, DuLong said, Keurig has 75 open production jobs in Vermont, including 60 at a factory in Williston that makes the Keurig KOLD system. She said the company will encourage displaced workers to apply for those open jobs, and the company is ready to expedite the hiring process for them.
Brian Kelley, the company’s president and chief executive officer, said the planned fall launch for the Keurig KOLD “creates an even larger opportunity for long-term growth and value creation.”
Kelley also said he wanted to more than double how many households use the traditional, single-serve hot beverage maker.
“We continue to believe that our hot system has the potential to reach more than 50 million U.S. households over time,” he said.
Gov. Peter Shumlin announced a job fair scheduled for Sept. 10 to help the 200 employees find new work. In a statement Thursday, he called the layoffs “a huge hit to the affected employees and their families, the Waterbury and South Burlington communities, and the whole Keurig Green Mountain family.”
“I am encouraged that there are currently thousands of job openings in Vermont, many of which are in the Waterbury/South Burlington area at companies like GlobalFoundries, Darn Tough Socks, Precyse, Husky, Revision, Blue Cross/Blue Shield, Ben & Jerry’s, National Life, Mylan, and Competitive Computing.
“I’m hopeful these Vermont employers can find opportunity in today’s difficult news and add talented and dedicated workers to their workforce,” he said.
Annie Noonan, commissioner of the Department of Labor, said all 200 employees would be considered “displaced workers” under federal law. That means the state can leverage federal money to retrain the workers for new jobs or even new careers.
Noonan expects most of the employees to be eligible for unemployment benefits once their severance packages end.
Workers can also visit one of the Labor Department’s 12 regional offices to find out more about what resources are available to them, she said.
The closest regional offices to Waterbury are in Burlington and Barre.
