Job losses at Agropur due to coronavirus

By Jim Cornall

- Last updated on GMT

The award-winning cheese OKA L'Artisan Smoke is an Agropur product.
The award-winning cheese OKA L'Artisan Smoke is an Agropur product.

Related tags Dairy coronavirus agropur

Canadian dairy company Agropur has eliminated 60 jobs and temporarily laid off another 200 as the company said its priority is to maintain its dairy manufacturing and distribution operations, which constitute an essential public service.

The 260 positions equates to about 3% of Agropur's global workforce.

"These are difficult decisions to make but they are necessary in order to maintain the sustainability of our business,"​ said Agropur CEO Émile Cordeau.

"Our goal is to bring the temporarily laid-off employees back to work as soon as we can resume the normal course of business. A support team has been set up to help the employees who will be leaving the organization transition and guide them through the process of applying for the government support programs."

Agropur said it moved quickly in the early days of the crisis to establish measures protecting the health and safety of its employees and a business continuity plan to ensure it can continue delivering dairy products to its customers and consumers.