Confectionery giant Mondelez International is to invest in automation at its Cadbury plant in Tasmania, Australia.
But the move means some 19 jobs will be lost at the Claremont factory.
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Mondelez said it plans to spend AUD6.7m (US$5.0m) on new equipment and technology to boost capacity at the facility, which produces Cadbury Dairy Milk chocolate.
In addition to improvements in the speed of production, there will be new technology introduced to increase automation of some manual processes, the company said.
But it added that the increase in automation and improved processes means “a small number of positions” will no longer be required at the Claremont site. Employees have been told they can apply for 19 voluntary redundancies.
Shalaby Mohamed, director of integrated supply chain at the company, said: “We’ve been making Cadbury products at Claremont for almost a century, and we want to be making them here in another 100 years’ time.
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By GlobalData“The food manufacturing sector becomes increasingly competitive every year, so we need to invest in new technologies to ensure Claremont remains internationally competitive and we can keep offering hundreds of good manufacturing jobs to Tasmanians.
“We’re committed to ensuring our local operations are sustainable, and investing in high capacity and automated technology will be a key part of delivering on that commitment.”
