Karro Food Group proposal to end slaughter and butchery operations at Wiveliscombe site
Karro Food Group proposal to end slaughter and butchery operations at Wiveliscombe site
Karro Food Group is proposing to end slaughter and butchery operations at its Wiveliscombe site in Somerset. As part of the proposals, the company has entered a consultation process with employees and trade union, with 113 jobs at the site at risk of redundancy. Karro is working closely with the Union and the impacted employees to look for redeployment opportunities to mitigate these proposed job losses.
The proposals are part of a strategic review of the business, now completed, aimed at ensuring necessary scale and efficiency across its operations. Karro will continue its traditional curing and food service operations at Wiveliscombe.
Seamus Carr, CEO of Karro, said: “We have reached this stage extremely reluctantly, and only after ruling out all other options. We will work with all impacted employees to help them through this process and, wherever possible, find opportunities for them to transfer to other sites.
“When we acquired Vion’s UK pork business in January, we began a process of looking at our processing capabilities across the business. There is over-capacity in the UK meat industry and we, in common with our competitors, need to ensure that our business is operating efficiently, and that our sites are at close-to full capacity.
“Sadly, our Wiveliscombe slaughter and butchery operation simply does not have the necessary scale to operate profitably and so we must propose this change in order to ensure our continued viability and growth, and safeguard other jobs across our business.”
The roles at risk are all at Karro’s Wiveliscombe site, with no other proposals for redundancies planned. Karro proposes to continue curing and foodservice sales operations at Wiveliscombe, which will retain a number of other employee roles at the location.
The proposals are part of a strategic review that Karro has completed following its acquisition from Vion Food Group in January this year, and are aimed at ensuring the continued growth of the business. Karro’s food service sales business, and the curing operations carried out for Karro’s Case and Sons brand and private label meat ranges, are both key parts of the company’s plans for growing its overall business, and Karro will continue to develop and grow these areas in Wiveliscombe.
