PepsiCo plans to lay off workers at North American headquarters and Plano division

After layoffs tore through the tech and media sectors in recent weeks, PepsiCo Inc. is the latest to announce job cuts across its North American snacks and beverages divisions. The layoffs are said to affect PepsiCo’s North America beverage business in Purchase, N.Y., and its North America snacks and packaged-foods business in Plano and Chicago. The company manufactures Doritos, Lays potato chips, Quaker Oats and its namesake soda. “PepsiCo will take steps again to simplify the organization so we can operate more efficiently,” PepsiCo told employees in a memo sent to staff and viewed by The Dallas Morning News. The memo was signed by Steven Williams, chief executive of PepsiCo Foods North America, and Patrick McLaughlin, chief human resources officer for Frito-Lay North America.

The memo encourages all headquarters employees in Plano and Chicago to work from home through Wednesday to respect the privacy of affected co-workers. Hundreds of jobs are planned to be eliminated, according to documents reviewed by the Wall Street Journal. PepsiCo did not respond to questions from The News about the number of North Texas workers affected. The cuts are expected to hit the beverage business harder because the snacks unit trimmed positions with a voluntary retirement program. As a result of the snacks division’s previous restructuring and employee acceptance of buyouts, “our impact will be relatively small in scale,” the memo said. PepsiCo employed about 129,000 people in the U.S. and 309,000 worldwide at the end of 2021. In the company’s third-quarter financial results, CEO Ramon Laguarta said PepsiCo expects its full-year revenue to increase 12% and earnings per share to rise 10%. “We are encouraged by the progress we are making on our strategic agenda and remain committed to investing in our people, brands, supply chain and go-to-market systems and winning in the marketplace,” Laguarta said at the time.