2 Sisters Food Group has confirmed that it is consulting with staff on a proposed plan to cease production at poultry processing site in Smethwick, putting 630 jobs at risk.
The company cites the plant’s “ageing” and the “significant challenges to meet the standards required by ourselves and our customers” as the primary reasons for considering the closure.
As a result of the consultation with staff, the company is offering affected employees up to 200 job roles at its West Midlands locations, which it says “will convert from agency to permanent roles”.
The group also states it will seek “redeployment of colleagues to our other sites in the West Midlands and the wider group”.
Following the announcement, Unite has offered its support to its 530 members affected by the proposal and noted its initial meeting with the company’s management on 10th April was “positive and constructive”.
The union added: “We will be presenting our proposals to the management when we meet again at Smethwick on Friday 21st April.
“One of the areas we will investigating to mitigate job losses is redeployment across the firm’s other operations in the West Midlands, as it was made clear that the Smethwick site will close.”
The Smethwick plant is an exclusively chicken cutting processor that has been at its current location since 1996 and has been supplying retailers, other manufacturers, as well as other 2 Sisters Food Group sites with chicken portions.
This story was originally published on a previous version of the Meat Management website and so there may be some missing images and formatting issues.
