Dutch fresh produce marketer The Greenery is undertaking a major restructuring that will involve the loss of several jobs, Eurofruit has learned.
Led by interim chief executive Okke Koo, who has a track record of turning around underperforming organisations, the company has been in discussions with employees about planned changes over the past few weeks.
Departing CEO Philip Smits informed staff back in September that further cost savings and new growth were essential to the group's future survival.
Although the company has declined to make any public statement about the reorganisation plans, Eurofruit understands that the issuing of new temporary contracts – for example to packhouse staff – will be brought to an immediate halt, while around 30 permanent jobs including some management are expected to be axed.
It remains unclear whether all of those redundancies will be made before Christmas; according to some sources, The Greenery's new strategic plan is expected to be implemented over the course of the next four years and will have to be approved by the company board of directors and council of members.
It has been clear for some time that The Greenery's financial performance was less than satisfactory, despite positive growth in its packaging and fresh convenience divisions.
Last year, its profit fell from €1.9m to €1.4m, with revenue also falling from €1.6bn to €1.4bn.
A year before, profit and turnover at the firm were €1.8bn and €4.8m respectively.
Attempts to turn around its performance suffered a setback towards the end of 2012, when commercial director Bart Merkus left after less than eight months in the job.
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