(Reuters) – Procter & Gamble (P&G) announced on Thursday its intention to delete around 7,000 jobs, or almost 6% of the total workforce, over the next two years, the American consumer goods citing unequal demand due to uncertainty linked to customs duties.

P&G also plans to withdraw from certain categories, brands and product formats on specific markets, managers said at a conference of Deutsche Bank in Paris, adding that withdrawals could also include brands.

The company had around 108,000 employees on June 30, 2024 and said that job cuts would represent around 15% of its non -industrial workforce.

The new P&G biennial plan comes as the company, like many other consumer goods companies, anticipates an increase in costs related to the trade war and must face a demand at half mast.

In April, the group announced an increase in prices on certain products and said it was ready to activate all levers at its disposal to mitigate the impact of customs duties.

On Thursday, the P&G financial director, Andre Schulten, and operations director Shailesh Jejurikar, acknowledged that the geopolitical environment was “unpredictable” and that consumers faced an “increased uncertainty”.

“This is not a new approach, but rather an intentional acceleration of the current strategy aimed at expanding the margin of P&G more in terms of superiority, fueled by productivity, in order to gain in the increasingly difficult environment in which we are in competition,” said the directors.

P&G added that the restructuring plan would help simplify the organizational structure by “widening roles and reducing the size of the teams.”

The adjustments provided in its product portfolio must also allow the company to adapt its supply chain to reduce costs, said P&G.

(Written by Rishabh Jaiswal in Bangalore, Elena Smirnova, edited by Augustin Turpin)

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