Job losses vs investment
The words investment and job losses are rarely seen in the same paragraph, let alone sentence. However, Kraft has announced the loss of 200 jobs alongside a £50 million investment in its UK plants.
In 2010, Kraft pledged that it would not close factories or make compulsory redundancies among UK manufacturing staff for two years and it still maintains that the announcement doesn’t break the pledge because they would be achieved by voluntary redundancies and redeployment.
Not all have been convinced of the alignment of the two announcements. Unite’s national officer for the food industry, Jennie Formby, says, “While we welcome the investment plans, we have great concern about the 200 job losses. Our view is that if Kraft is investing for the expansion of its UK factories there should be no job losses.”
The investment is certainly welcome news, with some of Kraft’s biscuit brands such as Oreo and BelVita being made in Britain for the first time, but I agree with Unite that people will continue to be cynical about the intentions of the company for quite some time yet.
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Katrine Kjoeller, Editor
Sweets & Snacks Europe
