23 April 2008 - With a view to reorganise its operations in Vermont, Pepsi Bottling Ventures LLC of Raleigh, North Carolina, has cut 15 jobs in Burlington, 12 of which in its South Burlington plant.
The layoffs come just less than half a year after Pepsi Bottling Ventures bought L.E. Farrell Co. also from Burlington.
"We basically needed to have that organization mirror the organizational structure that we use in other franchises," said George Suddath, Pepsi Bottling Venture's vice president of corporate affairs told the local press. "We had to look and see and determine how well it matched what we had ... we did find a few redundancies. And that's why we accomplished this layoff."
Commenting on the November 2007 acquisition of the Farrell company, Keith Reimer, President and CEO of Pepsi Bottling Ventures, said at the time: "By combining the resources of Pepsi-Cola Burlington with those of PBV, we will create an even stronger entity, which will be better equipped to meet the needs of our customers, employees, and the communities we serve".
Pepsi Bottling Ventures, LLC is the nation's third largest Pepsi-Cola bottler, operating 21 manufacturing, distribution, and sales facilities in North Carolina, New York, Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia, serving over 8 million consumers.
Pepsi Bottling Ventures has about 140 employees at its 2 Vermont facilities, the bulk of which are in South Burlington.