Premier Foods to close 6 plants, cut 600 jobs

Premier Foods to close 6 plants, cut 600 jobs
LONDON: Britain's Premier Foods Plc is closing six plants and cutting some 600 jobs, the company announced Monday. The plants are located at Ledbury in Herefordshire and in Bristol, Reading and Manchester, which will be shut down in a phased manner by 2009.

The maker of Branston Pickle, Hovis bread and Oxo stock cubes said nearly 1,000 workers will be affected by the plan, but it will try to relocate nearly half of the workers at other sites.

The surplus has been caused following the company's 1.3-billion-pound takeover of RHM Plc. Most of the workers rendered redundant are from RHM.

It said it is holding talks with employees at the affected plants. It intends to invest substantially in the five other plants where the surplus workers are planned to be absorbed.

Premier said it expects to meet the targeted annual cost savings of 85 million pounds by buying RHM and 28 million pounds by an earlier acquisition of a unit of Campbell Soup Co.

The company said its plants at Histon, Cambridgeshire, will handle all preserves production. The other plants are at Worksop in Nottinghamshire, Knighton in Staffordshire and Ashford in Kent.

Robert Schofield, chief executive of the company, said the restructuring will help the company to enhance its efficiency and drive its branded sales growth. He added the management will work with the affected employees to explore opportunities for their redeployment.