Shuffling the Cards

American Greetings Corp. (Cleveland), the second-largest greetings card manufacturer in the country, has announced it will eliminate approximately 300 jobs as part of an ongoing effort to reduce costs. About 175 of those layoffs occurred at the company’s headquarters office.

The $2 billion company employs approximately 20,000 associates, with 2000 of those located at headquarters.

“The actions we have taken today represent a continuation of our strategy to improve efficiencies throughout the organization,” said ceo Zev Weiss. “By the end of a two-year period concluding in February 2005, we will have reduced our supply chain costs by $50 to $75 million. As with the supply chain effort, we are now realigning our organizational structure to reduce costs. A result of this realignment is lower overhead costs but also, unfortunately, the elimination of some positions. The decision to eliminate positions is a difficult one but an action that is necessary given the business challenges we face.”

The company sells cards under the American Greetings, Carlton Cards and Gibson Greetings brands, and also produces DesignWare party goods, GuildHouse candles, PlusMark gift wrap and Designers’ Collection stationery. Subsidiaries include Learning Horizons (supplemental educational products). American Greetings’ products are sold in 125,000 retail stores worldwide.