Pilgrim’s Food Masters, which makes chilled and frozen meals for Morrisons, Aldi and Waitrose, has announced up to 260 redundancies due to the closure of its Dean Way site in Southall, in West London.
The company, which, along with pig producer and processor Pilgrim’s UK, is owned by US meat giant Pilgrim’s Pride, will now enter a statutory 45-day consultation with staff at the site.
The company said in a statement that over the past few years it has been working hard to transform its meals business, which has seen it secure long-term customer contracts, increase our product offering and improve our operational efficiencies.
“Despite our best efforts, we are continuing to face industry challenges and lower than expected market volumes. In light of these market conditions – and in order to ensure business continuity and protect jobs – we have had no choice but to review the shape of our business,” it said.
“Following a thorough assessment, we have identified ways to maximise the capacity across our sites and are proposing to consolidate our total Ready Meals volume into Attleborough and Windmill Lane. This unfortunately means the proposed closure of our Dean Way site.
“We expect these proposals will place around 260 of our colleagues at risk of redundancy, following an initial consultation period. We’ll be supporting all those affected throughout this process and our intention is to redeploy colleagues to our neighbouring sites wherever possible. We are working hard to limit any impact to our customers, consumers and suppliers during this time.”
The GMB Union said up to 1,000 Pilgrim’s workers were faced with fire and rehire at one of the company’s other London factories – but after pressure from GMB members, the company withdrew the threat.
Gavin Davies, GMB Senior Organiser, said: “GMB has serious concerns about how this will impact on our members and the local community with the job losses.
“With the previous closure of Colette Way, a further closure to Dean Way has come as a massive blow to our members. GMB will fight tooth and nail for workers to be paid every penny they are due.”