DES MOINES, Iowa- The President and CEO of Landus Cooperative is speaking out after a round of layoffs on Friday that impacted 10 percent of the agricultural company’s work force.

“Unfortunately, we we had to make some tough decisions around personnel, but it’s been a part of a journey we’ve been on for over a year,” said Matt Carstens during an interview from the Landus headquarters in downtown Des Moines on Saturday.

Carstens has been at the helm of the co-op for the past four years and maintains the cuts were not a result of financial difficulties for the company. Instead, he called it a “strategic decision” that was made to part ways with people within the organization whose ideologies did not align with the co-op’s goals for the future.

“I wouldn’t call them performance issues or anything of that nature,” he told WHO 13’s Katie Kaplan. “These are good people that that really helped us get here. But for this next step, it’s got to be rifled into what we’ve got to find is a path forward for the future.”

The co-op employs roughly 600 people across more than 50 locations in Iowa and Minnesota.
Carstens said almost all of those locations were temporarily closed on Friday in an effort to make it an easier transition for the dozens of employees who were notified of their termination during various 8 a.m. calls with HR officials and team leaders.

Carstens did not provide an exact number of employees that were impacted. Instead he quantified it as “less than 60” and said that all employees were offered a severance package consisting of at least two weeks pay and “career assistance.”

When asked if there could be more layoffs in the future, Carsten said there were none planned, but added that, “most good businesses, which is unique a little bit to the cooperative world, but good businesses look anywhere from 5 to 12% reduction in workforce every year.”

He said he felt compelled to speak on Saturday following rumors and negative backlash that emerged after the news broke, adding that the co-op is performing above standards and that in the coming years it will be focused more on innovative and state-of-the-art farming technology and techniques.

In response to WHO 13’s coverage of the news, the public outcry on social media had some people questioning Carstens’ ability to lead the business.

“In response to what came out yesterday, there’s a lot of criticisms around your ability to lead the co-op. What would you say to those people?” asked Kaplan.

“You know, what I would say about that, particularly my ability is that I understand,” Carstens responded. “Change is hard and there is absolutely a segment of people that want it like it was, or like it should be in their mind, and that’s okay.”