The Belgian fruit and vegetable group Greenyard is going to cut up to 422 jobs this year as part of a reorganization to improve results and save costs. The company is also looking at the divestment of its preserved fruit and vegetables division, Greenyard Prepared.
According to the company, most of the job losses will take place at the Fresh, which is active in fresh fruit and vegetables, in the United Kingdom and Germany. Greenyard is said to be one of the largest fruit and vegetable suppliers in the world. More than 9,000 people work in around 25 countries.
Greenyard issued a profit warning at the end of January, after which the price on the Brussels stock exchange fell sharply. The company faces fierce competition in Germany and in its own country, where prices in the market are under pressure. It was already said then that a “transformation team” was needed to find the way up.
In addition to the sale of the Prepared component, Greenyard is also continuing to divest non-core activities. The proceeds from these divestments should amount to 50 million to 75 million euros. The interventions must lead to an improvement of the underlying operating result by 20 million euros in this current broken financial year and 44 million euros in the following financial year.
Greenyard also wants to strengthen its financial balance sheet and reduce the debt. The company has hired Lazard investment bank to help find an investor to raise additional capital.
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