Dallas, Texas-based Dean Foods, one of the largest dairy companies in the world, blindsided approximately 300 employees who will be laid off as the company closes down its Garelick Farms operation in Lynn, Massachusetts.
Lynn Mayor Thomas McGee responded with outrage, claiming that the city had no warning from Garelick Farms and saying the "lack of communication and commitment to the city is indicative of what's going on in today's corporate culture. “Decisions made focused on the bottom line, without regard to the community, without any outreach to the community they're impacting in a big way."
It is believed that the move to shutdown Garelick is part of the enterprise-wide cost productivity plan highlighted by Dean Food’s CEO Ralph Scozzafava in announcing Dean’s First Quarter (2018) results …
“Our execution in the first quarter was solid and I’m pleased with our overall progress. Our volume and mix were in-line with our expectations and the traction that we’re getting across our enterprise-wide cost productivity plan is ramping up. We took important initial steps to lower our cost base. The initiatives we executed late last year and in the first quarter of 2018 are clearly working as evidenced by the benefits reading through in our results. We will continue to build upon this momentum to deliver on our target of $150 million in incremental run-rate savings by 2020.”