Type
Internal restructuring
Country
United Kingdom
Region
Location of affected unit(s)
Uttoxeter and Wakefield
Sector
Manufacturing
Manufacture Of Food And Beverage
Manufacture Of Food Products
10.72 - Manufacture of rusks and biscuits; manufacture of preserved pastry goods and cakes

111 - 250 jobs
Number of planned job losses
Job loss
Announcement Date
20 March 2019
Employment effect (start)
Foreseen end date

Description

The 2 Sisters Food Group has announced plans to cut jobs at its sites in Uttoxeter and Wakefield. The Uttoxeter site employs 780 staff manufacturing Fox's Biscuits and 250 of these jobs will be cut. There are distribution centres in both Wakefield and Uttoxeter employing 63 staff and 50 of these jobs will be lost. The company has said that the cuts are necessary to ensure that the sites are viable in the longer-term. The statutory 45 day consultation with employees will begin soon. The Unite union has described the proposals as a 'massive blow' which 'will cause real economic pain'. There is no information yet on when the job losses are expected to take effect.

A previous restructuring took place in February 2018, when 800 jobs were lost, while 1,000 created.

Update 03/12/2019: In November 2019 the 2 Sisters Food Group has announced that after negotiation with the union only 111 people have been made redundant from the Fox’s Biscuits factory in Uttoxeter: 34 employees have been made compulsorily redundant and 77 workers took voluntary redundancy. In total, 41 manufacturing jobs have been saved in Uttoxeter.


Sources

Citation

Eurofound (2019), 2 Sisters Food Group, Internal restructuring in United Kingdom, factsheet number 97409, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/97409.