Monsanto Co. confirmed Friday that some of the job cuts announced earlier this fall have come from the company’s St. Louis-area offices.

Monsanto said in October that it would layoff 2,600 people over the next 12 to 18 months as part of a move to streamline the company and reduce costs. A Monsanto spokeswoman said Friday that some of the layoffs “have already started to take place globally including some separations at our sites in St. Louis.”

She declined to say how many employees, exactly, have been let go at the company’s Creve Coeur and Chesterfield facilities.
“Monsanto values the contributions our colleagues have made to our business and organization during their careers and we remain committed to helping ease the transition for workers who have been affected,” she said. “Every employee whose job has been eliminated received a competitive severance package, including a lump sum cash payment ranging from 6 to 15 months of eligible pay based on years of service as well as base pay and average annual incentives paid.” Employees also receive job transition services, she added.
In late October Monsanto laid off 90 employees at research locations in North Carolina, Wisconsin and Connecticut, and moved another 65 employees from those facilities to its Chesterfield research center.
The job cuts are part of a larger cost-saving initiative by Monsanto, meant to make the company more efficient and save Monsanto $275 million to $300 million annually by the end of fiscal 2017.

As part of the restructuring, Monsanto said it would streamline some commercial and research development work, and that it would exit the sugar cane business.
Monsanto had about 5,460 total employees in the St. Louis area as of June 30, according to Business Journal research. The company’s current local workforce makes up about 24 percent of its global staff of 22,400.
For all of fiscal 2015, ended Aug. 31, the company posted net income of $2.3 billion compared with $2.7 billion in fiscal 2014. Monsanto’s net sales for fiscal 2015 totaled $15 billion, down from $15.9 billion in the prior year.

St Louis