Dean Foods Cuts Jobs as Q1 Profit Falls

Dean Foods will cut between 350 and 400 jobs in addition to 150 already announced following its first-quarter profit fall of nearly $33m.

The US food and beverage company’s Q1 profits fell 43% to $43.2m, or 24 cents a share, from $76.2m, or 48 cents a share a year ago.

The company’s sales rose to $2.97bn, up nearly 10% from $2.70bn, amid rising milk costs.

Dean Foods said it would speed up cost-cutting measures to recover from the profit decline caused by heavily discounted store-brand milk cutting into sales of its higher-priced branded products.

The discounting prompted Dean Foods to describe prices as dropping “beyond sustainable levels.”

The food firm expects to save $25m from the redundancies.