Trade union Usdaw is fearful for the future of one of Müller Milk and Ingredients’ English dairies following the company’s announcement last week that it plans to review its network in the UK and Ireland.
Usdaw (Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers) said it has been told by Müller that its dairy at Foston in Derbyshire in the English Midlands is the one most likely to close, with 228 jobs potentially at risk.
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German dairy giant Müller said it plans to review its network of six dairies under its Project Darwin cost-saving initiative launched in February.
It is conducting a 45-day consultation process for the dairies as it seeks to save GBP100m (US$129m) across its business over two years.
Daniel Adams, Usdaw national officer, said: “The company has confirmed to Usdaw that, based on current trends, the site most likely at risk is Foston.
“While Usdaw recognises the on-going challenges within the dairy sector, this news is a devastating blow for a loyal and hard working workforce. Even more galling is that the trade unions, earlier this year, had to take the extremely difficult decision to pause the pay negotiations in an attempt to protect jobs.”
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By GlobalDataUsdaw said it will now enter into collective consultation at a national level to “interrogate the company’s business case, exploring all alternatives to closure and doing everything we can to mitigate the potential impact that the company’s proposal could have on staff at the site”.
A first meeting as been arranged for this week.
Müller sites in the review, other than Foston, are Severnside in Gloucestershire, Bellshill in Scotland, Manchester, Droitwich in the West Midlands, and Bridgwater in Somerset.
In its announcement, Müller said the consultation process over the dairies will look at “future utilisation and capacity requirements”, and added it could not rule out the closure of “a manufacturing site should this be required in order to bring capacity into line with current and future customer requirements”.
just-food has asked Müller for a response to the union’s comments.
