David Holthaus reports:
Procter & Gamble plans to outsource the work of managing its product stock inside retail stores, a move that will affect about 2,700 employees in North America.
About 2,600 of the workers are part-time, P&G said. These employees travel to the thousands of stores that carry P&G products to make sure they have enough in stock and that P&G products are displayed on the shelves as they should be with the right promotions and advertisements.
The work will be transferred to several companies that specialize in retail supply management, P&G spokeswoman Marie-Laure Salvado said.
The company expects that most of the part-time workers will end up being employed by one of the companies that will take over the work.
The roughly 100 full-timers “will be given the opportunity to either find roles within P&G or with our retail vendors,” Salvado said.
The transition should be finished by the end of June, at the close of P&G’s fiscal year, she said.
P&G did not say how many of the employees are based in Cincinnati or at its Mason Business Center.
It also would not disclose how much it expects to save by the move.
The outsourcing is part of an ongoing restructuring at the Cincinnati-based giant designed to save money. The effort includes a voluntary, early retirement program that some employees have been offered and a hiring freeze through the rest of its fiscal year.
P&G is also trying sell its Pringles business, a deal that, if completed, will affect about 1,600 P&G employees worldwide and about 150 in Greater Cincinnati.
