Hoppers Farmhouse Bakery

130 jobs
Number of planned job losses

Announcement Date

22 June 2006

Employment effect (start)

Foreseen end date

Description

130 workers in Kent will lose their jobs with the relocation of a family bakery in Kent to Blackburn. Hoppers Farmhouse Bakery is one of Herne Bay's biggest employers but will close early next year, its parent company Interlink Foods has announced.

Interlink, which took over Hoppers in January 2004, is to move production to its factory in Blackburn, Lancashire. Hoppers, which makes mince pies and treacle tarts, started as a family-run business in east Kent 200 years ago.

'A lot of people are broken hearted because they have been working here a long time,' said employee Laurence Willis.

'They like working here and they get on with the people, but they are resigned to their fate.'

Roger Gale, MP for Thanet North, said: 'It is sad that a good, well-established Kent family firm with a very good reputation is being put under because of a merger with a larger company.'

Interlink said it hoped some Hoppers staff would be found jobs elsewhere in the group but redundancies were inevitable because of the distance between Hoppers and its other sites.

'The company is now entering a 90-day consultation with trade union stewards and others elected by their colleagues,' it said.

Sources

• 22 June 2006: BBC News