PepsiCo profit up, (780) layoffs ahead

[UpInArms]

http://money.cnn.com/2004/09/30/news/fortune500/pepsico.reut/

NEW YORK (Reuters) - PepsiCo Inc., the world's second largest soft drink company, said Thursday quarterly profit rose due to tax benefits and a strong performance from its key Frito-Lay snack and North American beverage businesses.

The company also said it was closing four plants at Frito-Lay, resulting in 780 job cuts at those locations. About 250 of those jobs will be moved to other Frito-Lay operations.

The company said it will take a charge of $160 million due to the cuts.

<snip>

The company updated its profit outlook as a result of the job cuts and the tax benefits. PepsiCo forecast full-year earnings per share of at least $2.35. It affirmed its 2004 forecast of cash from operating activities of about $4.9 billion.

...more...

[drscm]

1. Yep! Those tax cuts at work - producing new and better jobs NOT!

Corporate tax breaks benefit only the corporate owners. Yet who can blame them? If you have all this excess cash laying about but the demand is not there to increase production, why not just pocket the excess? After all, companies know how to spend our money better than the government, unless you're *Bush. Then you just spend, spend, spend until you drop because you'll be dead anyway when the bill comes due.

[cthrumatrix]

10. but but shrubby says tax cuts "keep jobs".....wtf ...which is it?

[mbperrin]

2. Wow! There's that * job machine again!

Look at those jobs go!

[KDLarsen]

3. Trickle down economy..

.. my rear end.

How could anyone remotely suspect, that just because corporations got more money on their hand, they would automatically hand it all over to their workers?

[NeoConsSuck]

12. So true!

but look at how much CEO salaries have skyrocketed in the last 20 years. It's obviously OK for them to grab the extra cash, even better if they can get rid of these low-life workers who are a drain on corporate profits </sarcasm>

When are voters going to realize that a corporation has absolutely no allegiance to any country? And if a political party bends over backwards to appease these corporations, maybe it's time to question the patriotism of that political party and it's leaders.

Waving flags is not patriotism. One of these days the freepers are going to wake up and realize that they've been screwed by the very same people they've supported. And by that time, it will be too late to change anything.

[izzie]

4. You a;lmost hate to hear you own stock in a company making a profit

Profit for the big guys and no jobs for the workers. How long will the voters watch this go on? I guess things have to go down more before working people say to hell with this. But then the people in China are doing well for that country. Question? How long will the workers of China pay taxes so its govt can buy bonds in the USA to keep us in the class of a very rich country? I am guessing that the reason China and Asia are getting our jobs is they own so much of this country. No one wants to up set the apple cart. Guess I would have to put in Europe also. I am sure they own a lot of our debt.

[mhr]

5. Jobs, Jobs, Jobs - We're Cutting Jobs!

Why? Bush told us so. We're making Amerika stronger again.

Besides, we need new young bodies for the war.

[crispyguy]

6. low carb = no jobs?

As much as I hate Bush, is it possible that this has nothing to do with any policies other than the incredible amount of people on low carb diets who might not be eating as many chips and drinking as much sugary soft drinks?

I heard a while back that companies like Krispy Kreme were in big trouble because people on the south beach, and atkins diets were staying far away from that stuff... i know its true in my case i've been on the south beach diet and dont touch chips, or soda anymore i used to eat that stuff all the time.

Is it possible that this, like the newspaper layoffs also posted (nobody reads newspapers anymore because of websites like this and others) really have nothing todo with bush or his policies?

That being said I'll be rooting for Kerry tonight during the debate... I really hope he can turn this camaign around... as I heard on Imus yesterday morning he has come from behind in pretty much all of his big campaigns...

November 2nd cant get here fast enough...

[Goldom]

7. Then wouldn't their profit be -down-, not UP?

[UpInArms]

8. Welcome to DU crispyguy!

:hi:

In response to part of your post:

Is it possible that this, like the newspaper layoffs also posted (nobody reads newspapers anymore because of websites like this and others) really have nothing todo with bush or his policies?

Is it possible that these newspapers are losing readership because they refuse to print news that affects everyone (focusing on narrow issues that don't address the real state of events) and therefore have alienated those that truly want news?

That's why I dropped my paper subscriptions - I got tired of reading rightwing opinion disguised as "news" and never getting the full story or any follow-up to real events.

I have turned to the internet and world publications for a clearer view of what is actually going on. I hate being un- and ill- informed.

How about you?

[hadrons]

9. "That's why I dropped my paper subscriptions "

I stopped buying the NY Times for pretty much the same reasons you stated

[William Bloode]

11. What's wrong with this picture?

I'm serious, profits are up, but we(Pepsico) are gonna lay off anyway?!?!?!?!

They are sending people off to starve for a little more profit. What happened to the day when companies actually cared about keeping people working?

[crispyguy]

13. profits are up because of the layoffs... not because business is good

It’s a sucky thing to do but in order to make profit when you are losing profit companies will lay-off the workers, this will reduce the amount of costs on the books and counteract any negatives from the actual profit loss, thus the company appears to make a profit unfortunately it doesn’t do much to solve the long term problems, but what can they do when people are dieting, and all they make is fattening foods?

As far as the papers are concerned, I still have a subscription I read my NY Post every morning, and while its not much of a paper ( more of a tabloid really) the sports section is great.

Most of my news comes from the internet, I contest that the reason papers and TV news is not doing well is not because of media bias (be it right or left) its old news from these outlets, things I read in the paper in the morning I saw on the internet between 12 and 24 hours before… the internet is chock full of instant unfiltered news which doesn’t allow for much spin