Bacardi International says that almost half the 11 local employees to whom it gave notice in May have now found other suitable employment within the organisation. contacted the Bermuda-based liquor giant yesterday following concern about more job cuts. Company spokeswoman Pat Neal however said there was no need for concern.

?Bacardi has absolutely no plans for layoffs in Bermuda. We cherish our employees there, we have extraordinarily dedicated employees and they are very hardworking and we very much appreciate all their hard work but we have absolutely no plans for layoffs in Bermuda.?

Ms Neal spoke with this newspaper following Monday?s announcement that company president and CEO Javier Ferran resigned for personal reasons after just 18 months at the helm. He is not the only one to depart the Bermuda headquarters this year.

The Bermuda Sun reported earlier this year that at least four employees were made redundant effective March 1 and two other posts were vacated voluntarily after employees were told that job cuts were imminent.

In May, the company announced plans to transfer two executives to positions out of country and it also gave eleven local employees notice that their jobs would be made redundant in one year?s time.

Ms Neal, head of corporate communications for Bacardi Ltd said then that the 11 jobs earmarked for redundancy formed part of an ?accounting function? at Bacardi. That function will now be performed out of Geneva.

At the time, the company offered ?generous severance packages, outplacement service and benefits? to all 11 staff to convince them to remain with Bacardi until next May.

Ms Nealsaidyesterday: ?All 11 of those people are still with the company and in fact they all decided to stay with the company and take the incentive package to remain with us. The update beyond that is that five of those people have found permanent jobs within Bacardi in Bermuda.?