Pilgrims UK confirms plant closures at Bury St Edmunds and Coalville

When Pilgrim UK revealed plans for the proposals in September it said that it would place around 290 employees at Bury St Edmunds and 350 employees at Coalville at risk of redundancy​. A consultation process in Ashton has also concluded and a four day week has been implemented.

In a statement Pilgrims UK said: “Following the conclusion of collective and one-to-one consultations, Pilgrim’s UK has made the decision to implement the proposals to close our Bury St Edmunds and Coalville manufacturing sites. This will be a phased process while the transfer of products to alternative Pilgrim’s UK sites takes place.”​

Transfer

Existing operations at Bury St Edmunds and Coalville are expected to transfer to alternative Pilgrim’s UK sites at Corsham, Kings Lynn, Linton and Andover. 

In the statement Pilgrims UK added: ​“We would like to thank all of those involved in the process, for their outstanding professionalism and high-quality levels of service maintained during what we recognise has been a challenging time. ​

“We are working closely with colleagues at risk of redundancy, providing them with support and guidance, including details of alternative opportunities within the Pilgrim’s UK network.”​

Challenging

Pilgrims UK has already recently revealed that the UK pig sector has faced the most challenging time in its history due to a combination of significant increases in production costs, falling pig prices across Europe and the UK, a decline in demand, labour shortages and the restrictions on the ability to export from some sites into key overseas markets.

Pilgrims UK said that a key part of its business recovery plan includes ensuring that its operational footprint across the UK is fully optimised. As part of this process, it identified that some sites were “significantly under-utilised” in terms of operational capability and capacity.