Agrium To Cut 500 Jobs, Sell Some Businesses

Canadian fertilizer producer Agrium Inc. will cut 500 jobs and look to sell several noncore businesses as it aims to find $475 million in savings by 2017, Chief Executive Chuck Magro said on Wednesday as reported by Rod Nickel of Reuters.com.

Agrium will also target savings from reducing working capital at its farm retail business and trimming operating and administrative expenses.

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Fellow fertilizer producers PotashCorp of Saskatchewan and Mosaic Co. have already started deep cost-cutting programs as profits decline after the price of potash fell to a six-year low earlier this year. Weak grain prices have also dampened spending by U.S. farmers on fertilizer.

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Among the businesses Agrium will try to sell are its micronutrients and European UAN (urea-ammonium nitrate) lines.

“These are not core to our strategy,” Magro said at the company’s annual investor day in Toronto. “We have better uses for our capital.”

Read the full story on Reuters.com.

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