Another Reason to hate Burton Snowboards

Burton Snowboards announced today it will cut salaries, cancel raises and bonuses and lay off staff “due to the challenging global economic situation. ”The cuts include layoffs of “less than 5 percent of its staff in North America,” and a decision by company founders Jake and Donna Carpenter to eliminate their own salaries. “This has been a very painful process for us, and considering the global economic situation, we’ve done everything in our power to save as many jobs as possible,” Burton CEO Laurent Potdevin said in a company news release. “Our goal this entire year has been to cut as many costs as possible on a global level, like sales meetings, travel and new hires so that we could avoid cutting people. Instead of a much larger number of layoffs, we decided to take a different approach, which is temporarily reducing salaries on a sliding scale from 0 to 15 percent for employees in North America.”

Burton, founded by Jake Carpenter in 1977 and headquartered on Burlington’s Industrial Parkway, is the world’s leading snowboard company. It also owns other action-sport brands Channel Islands Surfboards, DNA Distribution, Analog, Gravis, ANON and R.E.D.

After staff reductions, Burton employs 418 employees at its headquarters and factory in Vermont and 962 people globally. The cuts also will include temporarily reducing the company’s 401k match from 4 percent to 1 percent. In a company statement, Jake Carpenter said, “the shareholders at Burton are my wife Donna and myself. Our goals for Burton are not short-term, but the long-term prosperity of our brands, boardsports and the people involved. Donna and I want to thank our dedicated employees for their contribution to the company’s cause through a temporary pay reduction. The bottom line is that their sacrifice is preventing a far more significant layoff and will allow us to come out of this economic downturn stronger than ever.”

BetyLife.com suggests supporting other snowboard brands (Rome) that haven't lost sight of the true meaning of being a snowboarder and living and loving the lifestyle.