ZURICH (Reuters) - Nestle (>> Nestlé) said it plans to cut up to 450 jobs at a research and development centre for its skin health business Galderma in southern France, as it seeks to make the underperforming unit more efficient.

Nestle's Galderma business, which Nestle took over from its joint venture partner L'Oreal (>> L'Oréal) in 2014, will cut as many as 450 of 550 jobs at the R&D centre in Sophia Antipolis near Nice, a company spokesman said on Thursday.

The move follows Nestle's announcement last month that it would close a skin cream factory in Switzerland, with the potential loss of 190 jobs, and shift production elsewhere in response to a slowdown.

(Reporting by Silke Koltrowitz and Angelika Gruber; Editing by Susan Fenton)

Stocks treated in this article : L'Oréal, Nestlé