The agrichemical company Monsanto Co (MON.N) plans to close three research development centers in 2016 with a loss of approximately 90 jobs. It was said on Monday that they will be restructuring operations in order to cut costs in a slumping agricultural market.
The centers are in Middleton, Wisconsin, and Mystic, Connecticut. They both focus on seed trait development research. The other center closing is in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, which focuses on research on plant screening and phenotyping.
The company has plans to close the Middleton center in the first half of 2016, and the other two centers in the second half of the year. The three centers have 155 employees in total. A spokesman for the company said that 65 of the jobs will be moved to the Chesterfield Research Village in St. Louis, Missouri.
Workers were told about the cuts on Monday. Employees who were offered a job in St. Louis but chose not to take it will be given a severance package. Others affected will also be given a severance package, which includes pay, extended benefits and educational assistance.
Monsanto, which owns the facilities in Wisconsin and Connecticut, said it is looking for buyers for those properties and for a replacement tenant for its leased property in North Carolina.
Monsanto currently has about 22,500 employees at more than 400 facilities worldwide in over 60 countries. Earlier this month, Monsanto said it planned to cut 2,600 jobs and restructure its operations in a bid to cut costs. These planned overall job cuts would affect 11.6 percent of its regular workforce
Featured Image: A sign showing the plant breeding process is seen in the molecular breeding lab in the Monsanto research facility in Chesterfield, Missouri, July 28, 2014. Credit to Reuters/Tom Gannam
