US potato-products supplier Lamb Weston is closing one of its two manufacturing plants in Argentina and “curtailing” some production in the Netherlands.
New York-listed Lamb Weston has earmarked its Munro site in Argentina for closure – with 100 employees to be offered severance packages – and will consolidate manufacturing at its newly opened facility in Mar del Plata.
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“These actions are part of our broader strategy to improve profitability and enhance operational efficiency across our global manufacturing network,” chief supply chain officer Sylvia Wilks said in a statement.
“Effectively managing costs across our supply chain is critical to delivering value to customers, while enabling us to prioritise investments that modernise physical assets and keep operations efficient, resilient and ready for future growth.”
Once the Munro site closes, Mar del Plata will be Lamb Weston’s sole manufacturing facility in Latin America, a spokesperson confirmed with Just Food, adding the site produces a range of potato products.
A date for the closure has not yet been set because of the “legal negotiation process” with workers and the facility will remain open for the time being but with no production until that exercise ends, the spokesperson said.
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By GlobalDataLamb Weston president and CEO Mike Smith, who was promoted from COO at the French fries maker in January last year, announced a $200m annualised cost-savings programme in July.
He also revealed a complementary ‘Focus to Win’ strategy, which Smith said at the time includes “zero-based budgeting, assessing our non-core assets, and augmenting our commercial go-to-market”.
The Munro site closure is part of that strategy, the spokesperson confirmed, which includes “prioritising markets and channels, strengthening customer partnerships, achieving executional excellence and setting the pace for innovation”.
Smith started the plans amid pressure from shareholders Jana Partners and Continental Grain Co. to turn around the business and also bowed to demands to revamp the Lamb Weston board last summer.
Those plans were announced alongside the full-year results. Net income fell 51% to $357.2m, while adjusted EBITDA dropped 14% to $1.22bn. Net sales were flat at $6.45bn.
Net sales were flat again at the halfway stage of the new 2026 fiscal year, while net income improved and EBITDA shrank.
The results to 23 November, issued in December, showed Lamb Weston generated $3.27bn in sales for the half compared to $3.26bn a year earlier.
Net income rose 38% to $126.4m but adjusted EBITDA declined 1% to 587.8m.
Lamb Weston kept the full-year outlook unchanged – sales in a range of $6.35bn to $6.55bn and adjusted EBITDA of $1-1.2bn.
Meanwhile, alongside the Munro site closure plan, Lamb Weston said it will “temporarily curtail a line in the Netherlands”, also under the Focus to Win strategy.
“This decision is aimed at balancing short-term demand with our long-term strategic position,” the spokesperson explained, declining to provide the location or identity of the plant, the duration of the production suspension or to confirm how many other lines are at the facility.
Lamb Weston has a total of five sites in the Netherlands, the spokesperson said.
