Hundreds of jobs could be at risk after a big food manufacturer announced it was considering shutting down one of its ready meals operations.
Samworth Brothers said it was undertaking a consultation with 400 workers at its Brooksby Foods factory in Melton Mowbray, in east Leicestershire.
Brooksby Foods makes around 375,000 meals every week, rising to 600,000 meals during its busiest periods.
The site can do things ranging from roasting, baking, steaming and sauce making to marinating, frying and pasta and rice cooking. It has the capacity to produce long-life ready meals with a shelf life of more than 30 days.
It also supplies raw ingredients for families to cook at home.
Samworth Brothers, which is also based in Melton, is the 海角视频’s second biggest maker of sandwiches and wraps, its main area of business, and the market leader for savouries and pasties.
It owns Ginsters pasties, Soreen, Dickinson & Morris pork pies and has a share in the Higgidy quiches, frittatas and sausage rolls business.
The business, which employs more than 9,000 people, made a pre-tax loss of £8.9 million in 2018, according to the latest accounts, compared to profits of £18.6 million the previous year, citing a drop in sales across some of its core categories in what it called a “highly competitive” market.
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Total sales for the year were £1.064 billion, down 1.5 per cent.
The company has not announced how many jobs are under threat and said it aimed to redeploy staff who lost their jobs “where possible”.
However, one member of staff, who wished to remain anonymous, told LeicestershireLive he thought hundreds would be left facing redundancy if the closure went ahead.
He said: “They said back in March they were restructuring and that everyone would be found other work so that wasn’t too bad.
“But then last week they announced there would be redundancies.
“They’re talking about closing the Brooksby Foods production of ready meals and 400 people are working there.
“They will switch to doing vegan food – mince and meatballs – but it’s a much smaller line and I don’t think I’ve got any chance of staying.
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“I’ve worked there more than six months and I’m really disappointed. I didn’t fancy having to move jobs when they made the first announcement, but then at least there was some security. A job somewhere else [in the business] would at least still be a job.
“But now they’re saying people will lose their jobs and the staff here aren’t happy.”
The jobs market is currently taking a big hit because of the ongoing coronavirus outbreak.
Unemployment in the 海角视频 increased by 50,000 to 1.35 million in the three months leading up to the end of March, but that only takes into account one week of the lockdown.
The Office for National Statistics expects a further fall in employment to be revealed when the April figures come out, and said the number of job vacancies was also “sharply” down.
A spokeswoman for Samworth Brothers said: “We are consulting with colleagues at Brooksby Foods about a repurposing of the site to produce plant-based lines.
“The consultation is on-going and has not concluded.
“If it did go ahead, the repurposed site would initially have 100 to 200 roles and we would be looking at redeploying other colleagues to other parts of the business where possible.”