The restructuring events database contains factsheets with data on large-scale restructuring events reported in the principal national media and company websites in each EU Member State. This database was created in 2002.
Manufacturing Manufacture Of Food And Beverage Manufacture Of Food Products 10.82 - Manufacture of cocoa, chocolate and sugar confectionery
New offshoring locations
Poland
700 jobs Number of planned job losses
Announcement Date
3 October 2007
Employment effect (start)
1 January 2009
Foreseen end date
31 December 2010
Description
Cadbury Schweppes, the multi-national group that produces confectionary items, is to cut 700 jobs in the UK. 500 jobs will be lost with the closure of the firm’s site in Keynsham, whilst 200 additional jobs will be cut at its Bournville plant. Both plants produce chocolate products. Part of the production at Keynsham will be moved to the Bournville plant, but another part of the production will be ‘offshored’ to a location in Poland. The phased closure of the Keynsham plant is to commence in 2009, and will be completed by 2010. Cadbury Schweppes has stated that its two other chocolate producing sites in the UK, Chirk in North Wales and Leominster in Herefordshire, will be ‘unaffected’ by the restructuring. The UK trade union Unite, which represents workers at the Keynsham plant, said that selling the site would raise millions for Cadbury. Brian Revell, Unite national organiser for food and agriculture, stated: ‘Somerdale [Keynsham] is a profitable site, a productive plant and part of Bristol's heritage as well as our manufacturing history… We were always told Keynsham was safe because there was no capacity to make its products elsewhere. It seems the truth is that means no capacity in the UK but plenty in Poland. We will support our members in fighting this decision,’ Dan Norris, Labour MP for Wansdyke, stated: ‘News of the factory's closure is a hard and heavy blow, not just to the workforce, but to the Keynsham community as a whole... I have held a series of meetings and discussions with senior Cadbury Schweppes directors over the summer where I have been arguing that any closure should be implemented over years rather than months... Given the hard work and dedication of the [Keynsham] workforce over four generations, it is frankly, the very least Cadbury can do.’
Sources
3 October 2007: BBC News
Citation
Eurofound (2007), Cadbury Schweppes, Offshoring/Delocalisation in United Kingdom, factsheet number 65890, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/65890.
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