Nestlé announced it will shut down its Northeast Portland facility, leaving 53 employees out of a job as the food and drink conglomerate makes company-wide changes to its delivery model.
In May, Nestlé rolled out its plan to “simplify” the company’s shipping network. Instead of delivering frozen pizzas and ice cream directly to stores, these items would be shipped to warehouses. It’s the same model in place for Nestlé’s frozen meals and snacks.
"This change will leverage the highly efficient warehouse network that Nestlé already uses," the company wrote in a release at the time.
According to a Bloomberg report, the shake-up is estimated to cut about 8.3% of the company’s U.S. workforce, equivalent to roughly 4,000 jobs.
In a letter dated Sept. 2, Nestlé USA's corporate human resources director Penny Finley alerted state officials that those cuts were coming to Portland.
“The entire facility will be closed, and all employees at the facility will be impacted,” she wrote. “This closure is expected to be permanent.”
Finley said the company expects the entire site to be shut down by the end of this year. The company will start eliminating jobs on Nov. 1.