ESSEN, Germany—Brenntag A.G. is cutting more than 1,000 jobs and closing 100 sites across all its regions as part of a comprehensive restructuring program to reduce costs.
Starting in January, the German distributor will have two global divisions—Brenntag Essentials and Brenntag Specialities, with "strong focus" on changing customer and supplier needs, it announced Oct. 27.
As part of "Project Brenntag," the distributor expects to cut 1,300 jobs over the next two years out of its global work force of 17,500, with 200 positions impacted in Germany.
Brenntag said it is closing about 100 sites across the globe, half of which are third-party logistics sites.
In the meantime, the Essen-based group said it would make a significant investment in existing and new sites to create regional hubs, and "close white spots in the network."
"The optimization envisions closing sites to consolidate the site network in geographies and improve the utilization of existing sites," the group said.
The program is expected to deliver an additional $256 million per year in earnings starting in 2023 and will incur a cost of $430 million, Brenntag said.
"With our transformation program Project Brenntag, we take decisive action to create the strong basis for sustainable organic earnings growth in the coming years," said Christian Kohlpaintner, CEO Brenntag Group.
Project Brenntag also entails new roles, including a new leadership structure. Brenntag did not elaborate on the planned changes in the management structure, but said it would "invest significantly" in training employees to bring in their strengths and expertise in the best possible way.
