Pepsi Bottling Group Inc. recently announced it will cut some jobs in Atlanta.

The world’s second-largest soft-drink distributor recently announced the job cuts after its 2008 earnings forecast lowered. The job cuts overall will amount to an elimination of about 4.6 percent of the company’s workforce in North America, Europe and Mexico.

Pepsi Bottling, which is 33 percent-owned by PepsiCo Inc., will cut a total of 3,150 jobs. According to an article by Bloomberg, most of the jobs to be cut are located in Mexico. Earnings per share will be $2.20 to $2.26 this year, down from the $2.32 to $2.38 Pepsi Bottling forecast in June.

Pepsi Bottling will cut 2,200 jobs in Mexico and close three bottling plants and 30 distribution centers. The company will eliminate 750 jobs in the U.S. and Canada and shut down four facilities in the U.S. Another 200 jobs will be cut in Europe.

Pepsi’s main competitor, Coca-Cola Enterprises Inc., also recently cut jobs and operations as the economy continues to falter. Coca-Cola Enterprises, the world’s largest soft drink distributor, has cut 1,000 jobs in North America since Sept. 1 to help cut costs.

The economy has forced Coca-Cola Co. and PepsiCo to cut back as well. PepsiCo said on Oct. 14 it will eliminate 3,300 jobs, or 1.8 percent of its workforce, and close as many as six plants over three years to save an estimated $1.2 billion. Coca- Cola, which owns 35 percent of Coca-Cola Enterprises, has said it will cut an unspecified number of jobs as part of its plan to save $500 million a year by 2011.

“Consumers cut back on impulse beverage purchases and hunted for discounts as they struggled with higher gasoline and grocery prices,” the article notes. “Profit has been squeezed by higher costs for energy, resin for plastic bottles and corn-based sweetener.”

After taxes, Pepsi will record costs of 27 cents to 32 cents a share in the fourth quarter because of the cuts. The company also plans to write off $412 million, or $1.25 a share after taxes, after its Mexican water business performed below the company’s expectations.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 19th, 2008 at 6:38 pm and is filed under jobs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.