Food & Beverage News: Insights, Safety, and Dining Trends
- Nestlé reportedly plans to cut 66 positions across the York and Girvan facilities, according to The Press.
- A letter from interim manager Simon Barker said higher cocoa prices will lower KitKat volumes in 2025 and 2026.
- Nestlé says proposals may reduce roles and a consultation is underway; the company has not clarified products or site futures.
Nestlé is “proposing some changes” at a factory in York in the north of England that could result in staff cuts.
Just Food asked Nestlé to confirm the proposals following a report in the York publication The Press, suggesting 66 positions would be cut at the facility and another owned by the company in Girvan, Scotland.
The Press cited a letter it claimed to have seen from the interim factory manager for York and Girvan, Simon Barker, saying Nestlé’s sales had been ‘affected by higher cocoa prices, which means the company will be producing lower volumes of KitKats in 2025 and 2026’.
In response to Just Food’s request for comment, the Nestlé spokesperson would only say: “We are proposing some changes at our York factory to ensure manufacturing at our site is as efficient as possible.
“The proposal may involve a reduction in the number of positions required. As always, we are speaking to our employees about this proposal first and nothing will be confirmed until a consultation has been completed.”
No response was provided with respect to the plans at Girvan. Nestlé has also not responded to this publication’s request for clarification as to what products are made at the two plants and the future plans for the sites.
According to Nestlé’s website, it has a single facility in York based on Haxby Road that can produce up to four million KitKat bars a day. It houses a confectionery factory, offices, a distribution warehouse for the north of the UK, an R&D facility for its Cereal Partners Worldwide joint venture with General Mills, and its product technology centre.
In 2024, Nestlé invested £150m ($199m at the time) in a Purina PetCare factory in the UK, as part of a series of investments in the sector.
The company planned to expand the site in Wisbech in Cambridgeshire, which makes pet food under brands including Felix, Gourmet and Winalot. Nestlé said the move would create 40 roles at the pet-food facility, which employed 600 workers at the time.
In 2023, Nestlé ceased production of its caramel-based Caramac bars in the UK. The decision was made due to falling sales, the Swiss giant had said.
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