Trades union ends battle to save Nestlé factory

The Transport and General Workers Union (TGWU) has admitted defeat in its attempt to stop Nestlé closing its chilled desserts factory in Staverton in Wiltshire with the loss of 155 jobs.

Nestlé plans to move production to a factory in Vallet in France but has not set a date for the closure of the Staverton factory. The trades union said that closure would mean the loss for the UK dairy industry of sales of 1m litres of fresh cream a year, which is used to make 15,000t of desserts a year at Staverton.

The trades union said that the French trades union federation CFDT was against the transfer of production to Vallet even though the latter was on a four-day week.

The TGWU claimed that the Staverton factory was "profitable and viable" and it accused the company of closing the factory because of "corporate greed at the expense of the workforce and local community"