Sunoco Inc., a petroleum and petrochemical manufacturer and transportation fuels company, announced its plan to slash about 175 salaried personnel at its two Delaware County,PA facilities and two Philadelphia offices. Sunoco, which has over 4,000 employees throughout the Delaware Valley region, revealed that the company will be under major changes as early as the first quarter of 2011. Some of these include the separation of SunCoke Energy and the sale of Sunoco’s Toledo, Ohio refinery to Toledo Refining Co.

Joseph F. McGinn, Sunoco communications/community relations specialist, said that the lay offs are concentrated in the Marcus Hook refining and Lester marketing base and the Philadelphia refinery and headquarters office. “These result from the merger of two departments – Engineering and Technology and Refinery Excellence – into one called Operations Excellence, which will oversee capital projects, health, environment and safety, work processes, technology and professional services such as human resources and the legal group.” McGinn added that the company restructuring plan is also brought about by the present trend in the industry. “We operate in a difficult environment. We have to keep up with our competitors so that we stay a strong business.”