Findus Group confirms Grimsby redundancies
The headcount reduction follows a 30-day consultation period when it was first feared that up to 84 jobs could go at the Humberstone Road fish processing site, which employs around 500 staff, after Findus admitted it in late January that it had lost own-label manufacturing business to rivals.
A Findus Group spokeswoman told FoodManufacture.co.uk: "From our perspective we never want redundancies, so we're pleased that we've managed to arrange transfers for 28 staff to different roles in Grimsby." She added that all 47 redundancies had been entirely voluntary.
"The initial number of anticipated redundancies has been reduced through the transfer of staff to different roles and a reconfiguration of production lines. The situation has also been helped by a positive upturn in production volume over recent weeks," she said.
One of Europe's largest seafood factories
Steve Lidgett, operations director for Young’s Seafood added: “This has been a difficult process for everyone and of course we regret the fact that redundancies have been necessary. We are confident that 2011 will be a successful year and we are focused on accelerating growth by drawing on our scale, heritage and leadership in fish and seafood.”
The company orginially entered a consultation period with Grimsby staff on January 19, stating that it needed to reduce capacity based on the possibility of customer contracts ending in February; consequently production, technical and management roles were said to be at risk.
As one of Europe's largest seafood factories, Humberstone Road produces fish fingers, and other Young's ranges such as Chip Shop, Natural fish and Scampi.
