European convenience food group Uniq has announced it is to shut down its Riviera Desserts operation with the loss of 350 jobs.
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The Devon-based facility, which makes desserts for Marks & Spencer, will transfer production to Minsterley in Shropshire in Autumn 2009.
Uniq said it was closing the factory in order to consolidate its operations after making a pre-tax loss of GBP44.1m (US$87.2m) in 2007.
In its trading statement today (30 July), the company said the new move will leave “adequate room for future growth”.
A spokesperson for Uniq told just-food: “The closure is really a result of over-capacity in the company’s dessert business. In order to return to profit, it made sense to consolidate production to a much larger facility.”
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By GlobalDataThe company said 50 staff will be made redundant this summer, and another 100 later in the year. The remaining 200 will leave on a phased basis throughout 2009.
The cost of closing Paignton and transferring business to Minsterley is GBP8m in
redundancy and GBP12m of capital investment.
The company estimates a reduction in overhead costs of more than GBP11m per annum.
