Avon to cut up to 3,000 jobs

BOCA RATON, Fla. - Avon Products Inc., the world's largest door-to-door cosmetics seller, said Thursday about 2,500 to 3,000 positions will be eliminated as part of a new restructuring program designed to create annual savings of about $200 million by 2013.

The job cuts, which may account for as much as 7.1 percent of the company's work force, will take place over the next four years, executives said at a consumer analyst conference in Boca Raton, Fla.

The cosmetics seller also will freeze most salaries worldwide in 2009 and reduce travel and entertainment expenses by 35 percent, Chief Financial Officer Charles Cramb said at the Consumer Analyst Group of New York's annual conference.

The cuts, which will include existing jobs that are unfilled, come on top of a 2005 reorganization that was also designed to lower expenses. The company said it now expects annualized savings of $900 million from its original cost-savings plan and the new initiatives.

Avon fell 50 cents, or 2.5 percent, to $19.32 at 4:15 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. The shares have lost 20 percent this year.

Avon had about 42,000 employees at the end of 2007.