Avon Products Inc. will eliminate 142 jobs at two Westchester locations next March after aborting the roll-out of a global program to change the company”™s order service system.
Avon officials notified the state Department of Labor Tuesday that 130 workers will lose their jobs in downtown White Plains when Avon closes its Service Model Transformation Project office at 44 S. Broadway. An additional 12 employees will be laid off in March at the Avon plant at 601 Midland Ave. in Rye.
On Monday the women”™s beauty products company in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission said the workforce cuts here were part of a broader $400 million cost savings initiative in 2013 and 2014. Approximately 650 positions will be eliminated at Avon facilities in North America and around the world.
The announced job cuts in Westchester stem from Avon”™s decision this week to halt the roll-out of its service model transformation project, a global program launched in 2009 to improve the company”™s order management system. Avon invested approximately $125 million in software for the project.
A pilot program in Canada earlier this year caused “significant business disruption in that market and did not show clear return on investment,” Avon officials reported. The service model project was halted to avoid the risk of further business disruption.
Avon in October reported total revenue of $2.3 billion for the third quarter this year, down 7 percent from the third quarter of 2012. Â Avon Products Inc. CEO Sheri McCoy in an SEC filing called it a “tough” quarter in which the company was hurt by “macroeconomic headwinds and continued weakness in some parts of our business, particularly North America.”
“However, overall, Avon is headed in the right direction, parts of our business are stabilizing, and we are making progress toward our three-year financial goals,” she said.
