400 redundant as Sheffield food factory closes a month early

Almost 400 will be made redundant after the closure of Pennine Foods in Beighton was brought forward from May 21. A further 35 have found jobs at other company sites.

The facility on Drakehouse Crescent has been running despite the coronavirus lockdown. Employees were given two weeks’ notice of the change, which bosses say is due to a decline in sales of ready meals due to the coronavirus crisis.

A union official has criticised the decision as an “obscene and grotesque” way to treat workers.

Rashid Haroon, of the Bakers and Allied Food Workers Union, said the early closure was saving the company a month’s wages, as well as holiday and redundancy pay.

It left staff with less cash than they had planned for and jobless during lockdown.

He added: “I think it’s an obscene and grotesque way to treat workers, some with more than 20 years’ service. Since the closure was announced most have stayed and worked productively but now they are losing a month’s pay. Doing it now, when it is so difficult to get another job, makes it ten times worse.

“The company must have budgeted for people’s wages for May. Workers should receive that money as a ‘thank you’.

“We also suggested the factory stay open and furlough the workers for the final month. But they said there was no guarantee they would get payments.

“I believe they’ve used the pandemic as an excuse to speed up the transfer of production to other sites as quickly as possible to save money. And it is the workers who are paying the price.”

Mr Haroon also claimed workers’ had a ‘better’ redundancy package under previous owner Northern Foods and it had been reduced back to statutory by 2 Sisters Food Group.

Bosses launched a consultation in October saying the site was heavily loss-making.

In January, the firm said production would be wound down from the end of March to mid-May to allow it to ‘explore all avenues including redeployment’.

A Pennine Foods spokesman said: “Regretfully we have decided to bring forward the final closure of our Pennine Foods site by four weeks, which will mean the factory will cease operations on April 23.

“Our ready meals division has seen increased volatility in demand for its products as a result of the coronavirus crisis, and there is an urgent need to scale the business accordingly.

“Our priority has been to support all colleagues and explore all possible opportunities for them both inside and outside the business as we prepare for final closure.”

There are a total of 430 staff at Pennine Foods. Some 35 have got jobs at other company sites, the rest are made redundant.

The spokesman added: “Unfortunately this crisis has been profound and as everyone knows, has affected millions of people and thousands of businesses.

“Thankfully, and regardless of what BAFWU claim, there is still a buoyant jobs market in the region. There are other food businesses who are seeing increased sales and need staff.

“The following have either been invited on site or contacted to interview our people and we understand the majority have found offers at the following businesses: Clipper; Cerialto; Freshpack; Next Distribution; Russian Pie Company; Greencore; Sheffield Teaching Hospital; Fletchers; Pearsons; Samworth Brothers; First Bus; New York Bakery; XPO; Troy Foods.

“We will continue to talk to these businesses and arrange interviews until Thursday.”

In January, Sheffield South East MP Clive Betts said the firm had outlined plans to spend £38m modernising the plant but never put them into action.

He added: “There were no complaints about the quality of the material and the way the workers worked. The company has failed to invest. The plant is many years old and they couldn’t make it competitive even after cutting wages.”

Mr Betts said Pennine had attacked the terms and conditions and wages of long term staff by hiring agency workers on worse rates.

“This has allowed them to force down wages until people were paid just a bit more than the minimum wage.”

2 Sisters Food Group is a privately-owned food manufacturing company based in Birmingham. It employs more than 20,000 people.

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