By Eleanor Boudreau
Memphis, TN – Memphis-based FedEx announced this morning it more than doubled profits during the first quarter of its fiscal year 2011 (for FedEx that quarter began June 1st and ended August 31st), but it also announced plans to cut 1,700 workers.
FedEx's international shipping business is doing well because of more packages coming out of Asia, but its U.S. trucking business is losing money.
To fix this problem, FedEx said it will consolidate its Freight and smaller "Less-Than-Truckload" operations in January. The company says the action "will increase efficiencies and reduce operational costs," but it will also result in the closing of 100 facilities and the laying off of those 1,700 full-time employees.
FedEx's net income for the quarter was $380 million, up 110 percent from the year before, but that disappointed market analysts who expected the company to do slightly better.
FedEx was ranked 91st on Fortune's list of the 100 "Best Companies to Work For" and 205 on Fortune's "Global 500" (a list of the largest 500 largest companies in the world) in 2010.