Colgate-Palmolive will cut more than 2,310 workers, or 6 per cent of its workforce, by the end of 2016 in a push to make the consumer products company more efficient.

Colgate, which is based in New York and has 38,600 employees, wants to streamline global functions and said Thursday that it will continue to cluster single-country subsidiaries into regional hubs.

Savings for the program should total between $365 million to $435 million annually by end of 2016.

The cuts were announced on the same day that the company posted a 2 per cent increase in third-quarter net income as it ramps up advertising. Revenue slipped 1 per cent.

Consumer product companies like Colgate-Palmolive have increasingly looked outside of the U.S. to sustain growth but that has become problematic in recent years. Half of the nations in the European Union are in recession, with unemployment nearing 25 per cent in some. Even China's red-hot economy has cooled.

The stronger dollar is also hitting all companies that do business globally, with U.S. products growing more expensive at the same time that they've had to raise prices to offset higher costs for raw materials.