Faced with soaring costs and hyper competition, Britannia Industries has pink slipped 42 executives in a single day signaling that FMCG companies are cracking the whip on under performers. All 42 employees, including some managerial staff, who have been asked to leave will be given their salaries for the next two months, but have been asked to go on leave immediately. These employees were from the manufacturing, sales, packaging and quality control teams, said a person aware of the development. While the percentage of employees who have been asked to leave is about 3% of the company's total strength of around 1,400, the haste with which the move was executed shocked many staffers. But the company said the affected employees were put on notice for some months now.

Industry experts believe that companies like Britannia are bound to get tougher on performance expectation from employees with increasing competition in the marketplace. Britannia has been facing stiff competition from ITC, Kraft and Parle and also some regional players.

Source: The Times of India