Back in April the company offered voluntary severance packages to 7,000 of its employees.
A spokesperson for the company told CosmeticsDesign that 600 of its employees have accepted the package and will be leaving the company in June.
First quarter hit by ‘challenging’ conditions
The company’s performance in the first quarter of 2009 was hit by the weak global economy and negative currency effects, according to CEO Thomas J Falk.
"Business conditions in the first quarter proved to be somewhat more challenging than we predicted earlier this year, with significant headwinds from weak global economies and volatile currency fluctuations impacting our results,” said Falk when the results were released back in April.
In the personal care sector sales fell by 3.4 percent from $2.05bn to $1.97 bn with performance in Europe dragging the figures down.
Although the North American region achieved 2 percent sales growth for the period, across the Atlantic sales dropped by 22 percent, 19 percent of which was due to weak European currency exchange rates.
Breaking down the performance for personal care on a regional basis, sales climbed 2 percent in the North American region, reflecting increased net selling prices and an improved product mix.
Operating profit reflected the lower sales dropping 5 percent to $628m from the previous year’s quarter. In addition, this figure benefited from charges in the 2008 first quarter relating to restructuring and adjusting for these effects gives a 9 percent drop.