Kraft Heinz To Shed 2,600 Jobs In North America

Kraft Heinz has announced it will shed 2,600 jobs when it closes seven plants in the US and Canada over the next two years.

The downsizing amounts to roughly 14% of the company's North American factory workforce.

The newly-merged food and drinks giant plans to shut down factories in California, Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Ontario.

The company also plans to close its current lunch-meat processing plant in Davenport, Iowa, and move production to a brand new facility.

The closures will occur over the next 12 to 24 months, the company said.

Kraft Heinz will still employ about 18,000 people at 41 plants in North America.

In a statement, Michael Mullen, senior vice president of corporate and government affairs, said the closures were a "critical step in our plan to eliminate excess capacity and reduce operational redundancies for the new combined company".

He added: "This will make Kraft Heinz more globally competitive and accelerate the company's future growth."

Heinz confirmed in March it had agreed to merge with Kraft in a deal that created the world's fifth largest food and drinks company worth approximately $80bn (£52bn).

The new company announced in August that 2,500 non-factory jobs would be cut following the merger.