A Marseille-based Nestlé factory is to shed around a hundred jobs, a fifth of its workforce. Jean-Pierre Gey, the manager of the Saint-Menet production facility, yesterday told an extraordinary company meeting that the measures were necessary to ensure the site’s long-term health.
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Keen to avoid suspicions that the move was a forerunner to radical job cuts of the scale recently announced by rival food group Danone, Gey insisted that the redundancies would be effected through “natural wastage” and voluntary departures.
The move comes as part of a two-year turnaround programme christened “Planète” which aims to save FF55m at the Marseille site. Some tasks will be automated as part of the overhaul, while some will be moved to Nestlé’s Dieppe plant.
The factory at Marseilles was built in 1952 and employed 1200 staff in the heyday of the 1980s. Last year it produced 30 000 tonnes of chocolate and 19 500 tonnes of coffee products.
