Clive’s Purely Plants has ceased production at its Dartmouth bakery with all 32 staff made redundant.
The move forms part of a major restructuring at owner The Vegan Food Group (VFG), including closure of its head office in York as it shifts focus to its plant-based factory in Germany.
Just six months ago VFG unveiled a £650k investment in Clive’s, installing a new pie line and other equipment to increase production capacity at the 15,000 sq ft site on Nelson Road Industrial Estate. From here it supplied the Clive’s branded range of vegan-friendly pies, quiches, tarts, nut roasts, and savoury pastries to Waitrose, Sainsbury’s, Ocado, independent retailers, and wholesalers, as well as some own-label products for supermarkets.
“Obviously it was a massive shock for the guys,” Gary Baker, site lead/factory manager at Clive’s, told British Baker. “There was a lot of hope with the new investment that came through, and various things had us feeling really positive.”
Baker noted that his colleagues had “valiantly” continued working at the site just before Christmas despite knowing their jobs were under threat, producing around £500k worth of own-label products for Waitrose and Sainsbury’s. They were officially let go on 19 December, receiving redundancy packages.
Baker and his chief engineer have stayed on temporarily to wind things down and keep the site secure, with initial talks on its sale believed to be underway.
Samworth Brothers is said to have offered help to relocate some Clive’s workers to its factory in Callington (about an hour’s drive away), where it manufactures Ginsters products. The local job centre has also been engaged to find new work for staff that can’t travel that far. “Dartmouth is quite a tourist town, so there’s lots of work in the summer in the hospitality industry, but nothing much beyond that. So it’s a challenge for them,” admitted Baker.
Many of Clive’s branded products are now being shown as out of stock on retailers’ websites.
Clive’s Purely Plants was founded in Buckfastleigh by Clive Lowe in 1986, with husband and wife team Sally and Chris Carson taking over for 17 years before selling to plant-based investment firm Veg Capital in 2021. It was then acquired by VFC Foods Ltd in 2023, which later became VFG. “It looks like the end of a 40-year-old brand unfortunately,” said Baker.
British Baker has reached out to VFG for comment. The Grocer reports that Adam Lyons has returned to take a “hands-on leadership position” at VFC Foods, the company he co-founded in 2020, which has now become a separate entity of VFG and continues to produce the plant-based meat brand Meatless Farms.
No comments yet