Glanbia announces 35 redundancies

FOOD company Glanbia is shutting down part of its Waterford plant with the loss of 35 jobs.

Glanbia Consumer Foods Ireland confirmed yesterday that it will transfer the packing of milk at its Glenville facility to its operation at Ballitore in Co Kildare at the end of September.

The move will result in 35 redundancies at the Glenville site with 11 jobs being retained to continue with order assembly at the facility.

Glanbia employs 247 people across its Waterford operations.

Frank Tobin, the operations director with Glanbia Consumer Foods, said the transfer is needed to secure the competitiveness of the business.

“It followed a detailed strategic review of all our liquid milk operations in the context of ever-increasing manufacturing costs and the need for greater operational efficiencies,” he said.

“We recognise this is a difficult time for employees and their families and are committed to providing support through Job Shops to assist employees.

“We will be providing fair redundancy terms and will be consulting with employee representatives in the period ahead.”

Mr Tobin said milk will continue to be sourced from suppliers in the region, deliveries will continue as normal throughout Waterford, and milk collection will continue.

Meanwhile, dairy farmers who supply Glanbia met in Kilkenny last night to demand better prices from the company.

IFA national dairy committee chairman Richard Kennedy said there is an onus on the Glanbia board to follow up on the strong demands made by suppliers in Dungarvan three weeks ago to rescind the June 1.5c per litre price cut and to pay a top milk price.

He said that meeting, which was addressed by Glanbia CEO John Moloney and chairman Liam Herlihy, was led to believe that the company accepted there were issues to answer on milk price, and that they would return with proposals within two weeks.

“That was three weeks ago, and suppliers are still none the wiser,” Mr Kennedy said.

The Irish Dairy Board has increased its skimmed milk powder and butter index by 1.4c per litre in June, and by a total of 2.2c per litre from July 1. Lakeland has also announced that it will hold its June milk price.