The Birmingham Hovis plant will cease production today – leaving hundreds of workers unemployed.
The Birmingham Hovis plant will cease production today – leaving hundreds of workers unemployed.
Premier Foods, the maker of Hovis, announced the closure of the site in Garretts Green last November after the loss of a £75m contract with The Co-operative.
A total of 511 workers received redundancy letters in February. A bakery in Greenford, west London, will also close with the loss of 400 jobs.
In a statement, Premier Foods, which yesterday revealed bread sales had increased by 0.8% in its first quarter, said: “Towards the end of 2012 Premier Foods announced a number of critical steps to assure the long-term future of the Bread Division. As a consequence, the company made a decision, following consultation, to close its bakery operations in Birmingham.
“Since then we have worked with the Trade Unions and Birmingham City Council Task Force to provide all employees affected by the closure with employability assistance, training and support to find other employment. This has included the creation of an employability fund whereby employees can request additional funding for individual training over and above the outplacement support if needed.”
The company added: “Employees affected by the closure will be receiving redundancy terms in excess of statutory requirements. They are also required to sign a compromise agreement. The use of compromise agreements is standard practise right across the business, from top to bottom. It is a way of achieving a degree of finality between the employer and employee and safeguarding the interests of both parties.
“We would like to thank all our employees at the Birmingham site for their continued commitment and professionalism since the announcement in November.”
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