Aramark cuts Philadelphia headquarters staff

Aramark Corp., a major food-services company based in Philadelphia, this week laid off about 3% of its Philadelphia-area workforce of 8,000 in a restructuring of corporate staff in finance, information technology, supply chain, and other departments.

The company, which moved to a new corporate headquarters in 2018 from 11th and Market Streets to a building along the Schuylkill at Market Street, did not provide a total number of job cuts, but 3% works out to 240. The company did not say how many people work out of the new headquarters, which employed 1,200 when it opened.

“As we continue to build a growth-minded organization, we restructured our corporate staff to position the company to emerge stronger when the pandemic is behind us,” Aramark said in a statement Friday.

“We are doing everything we can to help with the transition, including severance pay, outplacement support, access to alumni resources, and an expedited recruitment process when normalcy resumes,” the company said.

Aramark has been hard-hit by the coronavirus pandemic, which shut down many of its customers, such as professional sports arenas, colleges and universities, and corporate cafeterias.

The company’s shares, which trade on the New York Stock Exchange, plummeted from a high this year of nearly $47 in January to a low of less than $13 in March. The shares were trading Friday in the $21 range.

In its most recent fiscal year, Aramark had $16.2 billion in revenue. Last fall, the company said it employed 283,500.

The company had previously announced layoffs at places where it has a contract to provide services, such as the Wells Fargo Center in South Philadelphia, but have been closed for all events because of COVID-19. Those jobs are expected to come back when activities get back to normal.

Employees have also contacted The Inquirer about job cuts in specific businesses around the country. But Aramark has not provided overall layoff numbers.

The company said in April that it would reduce top executive salaries and directors’ fees by 25%.

“We are substantially reducing the compensation of our senior leadership team and some managers across our businesses. We are also placing some of our colleagues across the company on temporary furlough,” Aramark chief executive John Zillmer said in a memo to employees at the time.