Scottish soup manufacturer Baxters Food Group has confirmed that a “small number” of jobs are set to be cut as the company struggles with high inflation.
The Fochabers-based business stated that “unprecedented inflationary pressures” have impacted “business performance”.
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Baxters did not confirm the number of redundancies but noted that it would be fewer than ten.
A spokesperson said: “As a result we have made the difficult but necessary decision to make a small number of reductions within our workforce.”
Last year, Baxters entered debt talks with its lenders as part of a refinancing initiative, describing the discussions as routine.
At the time, the company said: “We regularly review our advisers and suppliers across all areas of the business including our financial partners and advisers, in this case in relation to our planned routine refinancing.”
Baxters is a family business that can trace its roots back more than 150 years. Its products – including canned soups, canned meat products, pickles and chutneys – are sold by major supermarket chains in the UK, including Tesco and Sainsbury’s.
It also has an operation in Australia and one in the US where it owns Wornick Foods, a supplier to the US military, as well as shelf-stable foods manufacturer Truitt Bros.
Baxters reported sales of £338.9m ($426.4m) for the 12 months to 2 April 2022, up from £332.2m a year earlier. It reported a pre-tax profit of £5.1m, down from £23.2m. Profit for the period dropped to £2.1m from £16.5m.
During that year, the last financial year for which Baxters filed accounts with the UK’s Companies House, some 63% of the group’s revenues were generated in the US.
The company entered chilled foods in 2020 with the acquisition of fellow UK manufacturer Orexis Fresh Foods.
