A company that employs more than 3,000 people in Northeast Wisconsin has announced plans to cut jobs.
Kimberly-Clark says it will eliminate up to 5,500 positions in an effort to lower costs. The number amounts to up to 13 percent of its workforce. The company, which makes Kleenex and Huggies, also intends to either close or sell roughly ten manufacturing plants and exit some of its low-margin businesses that make up around one percent of its sales.
Kimberly-Clark employs about 3,000 people at its Appleton, Marinette, and Neenah locations.
There is currently no word on where the cuts will be made. However, Outgamie County Executive Tom Nelson notes this could be the latest in a recent string of blows to the area.
“It’s been a very rough six months here in the paper valley. First, we had news about Appleton Coated, then U.S. Paper Converters, then Appvion. A lot of people are asking questions: ‘what’s going to be left in a year, in five or ten years’ and ‘how many plant closures and layoffs must we sustain before something meaningful is done?'”
Nelson notes the 3,000 people employed are not the extent of each job. “We know that they will support up to five other jobs in that community.”
WTAQ