Danone is to close a yogurt-making plant in the US, with almost 150 jobs to be affected.
The French giant is to shut a facility in Naugatuck, a town in the north-eastern state of Connecticut.
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According to a Connecticut state WARN filing, the staff will be laid off between December this year and 1 March 2019, when the site is due to close.
Danone acquired the factory in 2013 when it bought US yogurt business YoCrunch.
Officials at Danone had not returned a request for further comment at the time of writing.
In broad terms, after years of growth, yogurt sales in the US have been more muted in recent quarters, with the market characterised by high production capacity and intense promotional activity.
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By GlobalDataWhen Danone published a trading update for the first quarter of 2018, it indicated some pressure on the North American yogurt market, without providing specific figures.
Danone CFO Cécile Cabanis said the company’s yogurt sales in the region “declined marginally” but insisted it had “slightly outperformed a category that deteriorated in Q1, penalised by adult regular and Greek products, while emerging segments such as kids, plant-based and indulgence are growing”.
In October, Danone announced plans to invest as much as US$60m to expand its plant-based beverage facility in Rockingham County in the US state of Virginia.
