Kimberly-Clark, the maker of Huggies and Kleenex announced this week that it would eliminate between 5,000 and 5,500 jobs amid weak sales for its products, which include nappies, toilet paper and paper tissues.
The company is closing 10 of its 91 factories and, according to the Wall Street Journal, about half the job cuts will be in North America, where sales have declined, in stark contrast to a booming business in developing markets.
Kimberly-Clark is dealing with a price war in key categories and weak demand for some products such as nappies, amid declining birth rates.
The job cuts and factory closings are part of a plan to cut costs by US$2 billion by 2021. At the same time, amid the pressures on its business, the company said it would raise its dividend by 3%, something that lifted Kimberly-Clark’s stagnating stock price on Tuesday morning.
Kimberly-Clark said the restructuring should generate annual cost savings of US$500 million to US$550 million by the end of 2021.
