Job losses at Dairy Crest

More than 200 jobs could go at Dairy Crest after the firm announced proposals to close its Nottingham-based milk bottling plant and reorganise its head office.

The dairy products giant, which highlighted “worsening and upward pressure on input costs, notably raw milk, vegetable oils, packaging, energy and fuel” in a trading statement this morning, said: “To counteract these pressures we have been focusing on delivering significant cost savings in two principal areas. Firstly we are continuing to drive costs out of both distribution and manufacturing in the Dairies division. “Secondly we are in the process of implementing a reorganisation of our Head Office and other supporting functions which will deliver significant cost savings next year.”

It declined to supply details of how many jobs might go at its Claygate head office, but confirmed that the savings accrued from the reshuffle would be "in the millions rather than in the hundreds of thousands". External affairs director Arthur Reeves said that job cuts would primarily be from central functions such as finance and group marketing.

He added: "We are not being specific about numbers, but there will also be a slight move out of the central functions into the two divisions [dairies and food]."

Separately, Dairy Crest was also “considering the closure of the Nottingham dairy”, with production to be transferred to other sites within the business.

The Nottingham dairy, a predominantly glass bottling operation which Dairy Crest acquired in 2006 as part of the Express Dairies acquisition, employs 215 staff and processes 90M litres of milk a year.

While supermarkets had been cutting the retail price of milk in recent weeks, prices paid to processors still needed to go up to reflect their increased costs and higher farmgate prices, said Reeves.