June 18, 2009 | Read Time: 1 minute
Due to a sharp drop in assets, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation said this month it is closing two overseas offices, and has already shuttered a domestic one.
Kellogg, which has its headquarters in Battle Creek, Mich., said offices in Sao Paulo, Brazil, and Pretoria, South Africa, will shut down this summer. In February, the foundation closed its facility in Jackson, Miss.
“We are trimming budgets in all regions given the reduction in our overall asset base,” Sterling K. Speirn, Kellogg’s chief executive, said on its Web site. The fund’s assets declined almost 22 percent last year, to $6.36-billion.
Keeping Commitments
Mr. Speirn said despite the economic situation, Kellogg will continue to support charities in the affected regions and honor all its grant commitments. Grantees, he said, will be charities with “a strong local presence, a proven track record, and philosophies that align with those of the foundation.”
As a result of the closings, Kellogg is laying off 13 people in Africa, said Joanne K. Krell, vice president of communications for the foundation. Any staff changes in Brazil and Mississippi are not yet determined, she said.
Since 1990, Ms. Krell said, Kellogg has closed five other offices primarily due to economic constraints. This year’s closings will leave Kellogg with one foreign office, in Mexico.
Ms. Krell said that the decision to close the South Africa office is unrelated to a criminal investigation of possible fraud at that facility. In November, Kellogg announced it had discovered “financial irregularities” there and that several hundred thousand dollars may have been stolen. The foundation is conducting a forensic audit of its African operations, which Ms. Krell said is not finished.
