Business

Benjamin Moore slashes veteran employees

The halls at Benjamin Moore’s headquarters are taking on a new tint — and the employees call it “bloodbath.”

Under the ownership of billionaire Warren Buffett, sources said the flailing paint brand is firing as many as 35 sales reps — many of them company veterans with decades of experience — as it scrambles to conserve cash.

The company is swinging the axe despite Buffett’s recent public pledge to rebuild the 130-year-old brand’s network of mom-and-pop dealers, which the folksy tycoon had touted as a triumph of American business when he acquired the company in 2000 for $1 billion.

“This is the antithesis of rebuilding the network,” one former exec told The Post, noting that the company’s nationwide sales force has been whittled down to less than 200 — off more than 50 percent since the housing crisis.

“They’re cutting the heads who actually could facilitate the revival of those dealer networks.”

Representatives at Benjamin Moore and Buffett’s investing conglomerate, Berkshire Hathaway, didn’t respond to requests for comment.

The turmoil at Benjamin Moore has widened under Tracy Britt Cool, a 29-year-old financial assistant to Buffett who was installed as chairman last year following the ouster of CEO Denis Abrams.

In a grisly ritual on Tuesday, traveling field reps were summoned to the company’s headquarters in Montvale, NJ, only to be abruptly handed pink slips and hauled home in black limousines after their company-owned cars were confiscated, according to sources.

“They take your phone right away, they take your car keys, and they empty everything you’ve got into a cardboard box,” said a source. “Then you get the limo ride to your own funeral.”

Cool, who boasts an office just steps away from Buffett’s at Berkshire’s headquarters in Omaha, Neb., has failed to stanch bleeding that began under Abrams, who had been angling to dismantle the dealer network in favor of distribution deals with big-box retailers including Lowe’s.

In her first blunder, the blond financial prodigy installed as CEO Bob Merritt, a former restaurant exec who also happened to be the husband of Cool’s close friend Jill DiLosa, a 36-year-old Wall Street investor.

As reported by The Post, Cool fired Merritt in September amid allegations that he harassed the company’s female employees. She immediately replaced Merritt with Michael Searles, a retailing veteran.

Insiders speculate that Cool is giving an early retirement to dozens of sales reps, many of whom had pensions and six-figure salaries, with plans to replace them with younger, lower-paid workers.

The carnage has sharpened the bitterness toward Buffett, who has been blasted for extracting hefty cash dividends from the company even as it slashes costs.

“Warren and Charlie get to work forever,” said one miffed company alum, referring to Buffett and his longtime vice chairman Charlie Munger, ages 83 and 89, respectively.

“Meanwhile, they get rid of all the 50-year-olds.”