National Foods, the Australian group owned by Japanese conglomerate Kirin Holdings, has announced further moves to revamp its manufacturing base – which could lead to the loss of over 70 jobs.

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Production at National Foods’ Hexham site will stop by the end of next year, the company said earlier this week (29 September).


Some 78 employees are employed at the Hexham facility, which makes thickened cream, sweetened condensed milk and cottage cheese.


National Foods said it is building a distribution centre in Hexham, which is set to open next month and employ 19 staff.


The Hexham distribution facility will take on workers from a second distribution site, in Cardiff, which is set to close next month.

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National Foods said the Hexham site would also handle some of the volumes looked after by its Berkeley Vale distribution centre.


“Any decision that will result in job losses is taken extremely seriously, but this is about helping ensure National Foods remains strong and viable in the long term,” National Foods group executive, manufacturing operations, Arthur Murphy said.


“There will be no impact on local farmers as National Foods will continue to require the milk it buys locally.”


In June, National Foods announced cuts to long-life juice production at its Riverland site, a move that led to the loss of 34 jobs.


This month, National Foods is set to get a new CEO from Lion Nathan, the Australian brewer that is in the process of being taken over by Kirin.


Lion Nathan said last Friday that Andrew Reeves, MD of its operations in Australia had been lined up to replace Ashley Waugh as CEO and MD of National Foods.