Sysco Corp has announced that it will be releasing 1,200 jobs as it raises its operating income growth target for the year. The 1,200 jobs is equal to 2% of the overall workface. On the other hand, these job cutting strategy will take place over the next 15 months.

The company's target is to reach an operating income growth of at least $500 million by the end of fiscal year 2018. At present, the Houston-based multinational food distributor is considered to be the largest the non-oil company in the city. It is also the third-largest non-oil related company in the state of Texas. The first and second placers are AT&T Inc and Dell, respectively.

"As part of the three-year plan, we have reached a very difficult decision to reduce the size of our work force," Sysco CEO Bill DeLaney said in a statement. "We take seriously any decision that impacts our associates, but this is an essential step toward becoming a more efficient organization. This action will position us to compete more effectively in the markets we serve, while continuing to invest in our business, grow our dividend, make strategic acquisitions and opportunistically repurchase shares," DeLaney added.

Among the departments most affected by this move are administrative and non-customer-facing roles. On the lighter side, the local marketing associates and those who are in the delivery and warehouse departments will not be part of this step.

Furthermore, the company has revealed that they are also revising their business technology strategy. They will have it more focused on improving the customer experience and modernizing and adding "new capability and functionality to its existing, proven SUS Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system that is tailored to the needs of its customers."

The announcement came a few days after the company acquired North Star Seafood, a Florida-based seafood distributor with approximately $128 million in annual sales

Sysco is a company that provides products and related services to approximately 425,000 customers