Axe looms over 60 jobs at Lynn food firm
FOOD giant Tulip is in talks with staff and unions over the possibility of making up to 60 redundancies at its Lynn factory.
A top boss yesterday moved to reiterate the company's commitment to the town and said it was now "fine-tuning" the site to make it an industry leader.
Tulip has ploughed more than 40 million into the Hardwick Narrows cooked meats factory in the past four years and moved business from other parts of the country into it.
Divisional managing director for the north east Mr Peter Judge said: "We are absolutely committed to the site. We are investing 6.5 million in it this year, having spent many millions over the last two years, building what is a fantastic unit.
"We have grown the size of the business considerably over the last 12 months, now we are redefining exactly what we need.
"It's a rebalancing of the site, not a wholesale change."
Mr Judge said Tulip had gone from employing around 300 people to more than 500 in Lynn in the past year and was committed to employing permanent rather than temporary staff for the future.
He said a legal consultation was under way and the number of job losses was not yet set.
He added: "There has been significant investment and it is not yet making an acceptable return. This is the last push to make it an industry-leading unit."
Regional industrial organiser for the T & G arm of the Unite union, which has a sizeable membership at the factory, Mick Doherty said: "We are optimistic we can minimise potential job losses as much as possible."
A worker, who did not want to be named, said employees had been called in in groups and warned jobs look set to go.
He said: "The general feeling among staff is one of disappointment."
West Norfolk's food industry has suffered a string of blows, resulting in hundreds of job losses, in the past 18 months, with the imminent closure of Del Monte in West Lynn, recent demise of the landmark Campbell's factory, which closed after transferring into the hands of Premier Foods, and shutdown of Del Monte's Methwold factory.
North West Norfolk MP Henry Bellingham said: "It is potentially very bad news."
He added that Palm Paper's plans for a multi-million pound state-of-the-art paper mill in South Lynn were now even more crucial for the prosperity of the area than ever.
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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