Premier Foods, the UK’s largest food group, is to close six of its sites in the country, it announced today (2 July).
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The company, which makes brands including Branston’s pickle and the Quorn vegetarian range, is to wield the axe after a business review in the aftermath of last year’s acquisition of RHM.
Premier aims to close the six sites – two in Manchester and one each in Bristol, Herefordshire, Cheshire and Berkshire – by 2009. The company said it would invest “significantly” in the other five sites.
Chief executive Robert Schofield said the company needed to remain “competitive in the market place”.
He added: “These proposals will enable us to enhance our efficiency whilst giving us the capability to drive our branded sales growth. Our proposals include significant investment in 5 of our sites whilst 6 sites will close.
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By GlobalData“We appreciate the impact our proposals will have on employees at those sites and we will work with them to explore opportunities for redeployment within the group or outside of the company.”
Premier confirmed that its target of achieving GBP85m (US$171.1m) in cost-savings from the RHM deal remains on-track. The company added that it would also generate GBP28m in synergies from its acquisition of Campbell’s last year.
