Around 750 staff were warned that their jobs were at risk in a letter sent by the Doncaster-based firm last week. The move was described as a “devastating blow” by Unite the Union regional officer Shane Sweeting.
Cooplands, which employs the majority of its staff in 88 of its Yorkshire retail branches and its factory, was founded in 1932 and has brought in the restructuring firm Resolve to take over the management of the business, said Sweeting.
“There’s 750 staff in total and they all received the letter,” Sweeting added. “It’s a great shame; we’re in a position where a major local employer could put a lot of people out of work.”
More than 100 staff
It was unknown which areas of the business would be affected, but one commentator claimed more than 100 staff could lose their jobs.
The letter received by employees outlined the company’s recent sales losses and a continued decline in revenue.
It read: “We have all worked hard over the past 12 months to try and stem the losses, but unfortunately everybody’s efforts have been in vain.”
The business could not sustain the losses, which would have an impact on jobs in the future, it added.
“Unfortunately we now therefore have to consider the loss of job roles across all areas of the business,” it said.
First redundancies
The first redundancies could occur from March 3, according to local reports and some of the firm’s stores faced full or partial closures, the reports added.
“However, there is a rumour that the bakery chain Greggs could take on any of the stores Cooplands closes, as well as the employees, but that’s just a rumour,” Sweeting added.
Staff are now in consultation with Cooplands and more information is expected to become available later this week, Sweeting said.
Cooplands and Resolve declined to comment and no-one from Greggs was available at the time of publication.
Meanwhile, Cooplands’ announcement follows the release of FoodManufacture.co.uk’s jobs figures last week, which revealed a whopping 3,101 jobs had been announced as in danger or lost in recent months.
Only 2,812 jobs had been created in the same period, which were calculated from articles published on FoodManufacture.co.uk during the latter half of 2014 and the first month of 2015.
To view thousands of jobs in UK food and drink manufacturing, visit FoodManJobs.