Kraft Heinz is cutting another 2,600 jobs

Kraft Heinz will close seven plants in the U.S. and Canada over the next two years as part of a downsizing that will eliminate 2,600 jobs, or roughly 14 percent of its North American factory workforce, the food company announced Wednesday.

The news follows Kraft's merger in July with ketchup-maker Heinz. That company is owned by Warren Buffett and private equity firm 3G Capital.

3G Capital - which also owns beer maker AB InBev and was behind Burger King's buyout of Canadian doughnut chain Tim Hortons last year - is known for making hefty job cuts.

After the Burger King-Tim Hortons deal, the Canadian company cut between 20% and 40% of its corporate workforce.

Over at Kraft, the first signs of cost-cutting came in July, when perks like employee snacks were taken away.

Then, in August, the newly merged company said it would cut 2,500 non-factory jobs.

Now it has announced it will cut 2,600 factory jobs too.

Factory cuts and relocations

The company said it would close manufacturing facilities in Fullerton and San Leandro, California; Federalsburg, Maryland; St. Marys, Ontario, Canada; Campbell, New York; Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania; and Madison, Wisconsin. The closures will occur over the next 12 to 24 months.

The company said it also will close its existing lunch-meat processing plant in Davenport, Iowa, and move production to a new state-of-the-art plant to be built several miles away within two years. Part of the company's cheese production will also be moved away from Champaign, Illinois.

The company, co-headquartered in Chicago and Pittsburgh, formed from the merger of Kraft and Heinz earlier this year. After the facilities close, Kraft Heinz will have 41 plants in North America that employ about 18,000 people.

"Our decision to consolidate manufacturing across the Kraft Heinz North American network is a critical step in our plan to eliminate excess capacity and reduce operational redundancies for the new combined company," Michael Mullen, senior vice president of corporate and government affairs, said in a statement.

"This will make Kraft Heinz more globally competitive and accelerate the company's future growth," he said. "We have reached this difficult but necessary decision after thoroughly exploring extensive alternatives and options."

The company said about 250 corporate jobs in the Oscar Mayer and U.S. meat business unit will be relocated from Madison, Wisconsin, to Chicago.

Kraft Heinz will report third quarter earnings on Thursday.

NOW WATCH: QUIZ: Do you know what the numbers attached to these brands mean?

Please enable Javascript to watch this video