NORWICH – Chobani announced late last week a number of changes to its company, some of which impact area residents.
One such change involves the manufacturing plant in South Edmeston, where it was confirmed that certain employees’ services were no longer needed. It was said the changes in South Edmeston are to bring the plant more closely in line with the original design.
In December of 2013, Chobani announced similar changes, and at that time, Chief Marketing and Brand Officer Peter McGuinness would not confirm the number of temporary employees no longer needed.
Just more than six months later, additional employees have been let go, and again – a number could not be confirmed. It was said the changes will not impact production, capability or quality of the product.
The South Edmeston plant is more than 400,000 square feet and more than 300 million dollars has been put into the facility to optimize its productivity and quality.
“We are a young company that has grown very quickly and after a thorough and comprehensive review of our business, we made the difficult but necessary decision to implement operational and organizational adjustments that support our growth and allow us to continue to compete and maintain our leadership position,” said David Denholm, President and Chief Operating Officer.
The Twin Falls, Idaho facility also recently made comparable changes. Just as the South Edmeston plant did late last year, the Twin Falls facility reduced its number of temporary employees and switched the shift schedule from 12-hour shifts to three 8-hour shifts.
Per a statement released from Chobani, temporary employees were needed throughout the first year in Twin Falls in order to “ramp up” the facility’s production. It additionally read that certain redundant positions were eliminated.
According to the release, the South Edmeston plant will remain the “home for its East Coast operations and distribution and for certain international markets that include the Caribbean and Latin America. Its facility in Twin Falls, the world’s largest dairy manufacturing facility, will continue to produce core products, new innovations and support the company's growing demand in the Western United States.”
Additionally, members of the Chobani sales force previously located in Charlotte, NC have been relocated to New York City. It was stated that this was to bring closer together those responsible for marketing and selling the products.
The Chobani headquarters in Norwich has been named the “Business Service Center” for the company. Sources said this means finance operations, IT, payroll, and service related operations will all take place in Norwich.
It was also confirmed that not a single Norwich employee from the Business Service Center was impacted by the changes. It was said that the Norwich facility will continue to help keep operations running smoothly on a global scale.
“Much like other companies that have grown so rapidly in their first decade, making adjustments to our original structure will further position us to continue to lead the category we pioneered and to invest even more in our business and future growth,” said Denholm.