Procter & Gamble to close down its Beirut offices

Decision follows company's restructuring strategy

Procter & Gamble, global consumer products manufacturer, will be closing its offices in Beirut by the end of September. Operations will be shifted to the company’s offices in Egypt and Dubai.
The decision was taken by P&G’s head management, in line with the company’s restructuring strategy, according to a senior staff member at P&G, Lebanon.

The US-based consumer goods giant announced a four-year restructuring plan aimed at cutting costs by $10 billion in February. It said it would dismiss ten percent of its global workforce, or 5,700 jobs, by the end of 2013.

The official said some senior staff members will be relocated to Egypt and Dubai. The rest will be discharged. The company reduced their staff number from 120 to 90 during the past two years.

P&G has been supplying the local market with a wide portfolio of brands for over 50 years. Ariel, Fairy, Pantene, Crest, Gillette, and Pampers are among the 18 brands offered. These products are distributed locally through two main dealers, Transmed and Fattal. “The closure of the Beirut premises will not affect the availability of P&G’s products locally,” said Roula Abbas, Chairman assistant at Transmed. She said that even with their local office, P&G’s products were supplied to the distributors directly from abroad.

P&G opened its offices in Beirut in 2002. The company had a detergent factory, for manufacturing the ‘Yes’ brand, in Choueifat. The plant was destroyed during the war in 1982.