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News of packing centre closures is being seen as the first steps in the inevitable rationalisation process that follows the merger of Deans Foods and Stonegate.
Plans announced earlier this month by the new company, Noble Foods, are aimed at tackling over-capacity and costs within the packing side of the business. The cuts will affect three centres formerly run by Deans. Commenting on the announcement that Gubblecote in Hertfordshire will be closing, chief executive of Noble Foods, Michael Kent, said: "The new company has excess grading capacity and Gubblecote is an old site with space constraints which make any radical development of the site impractical."
At Standlake in Oxfordshire and Walesby in Nottinghamshire the conventional packing operations will also cease and the sites will be converted to farm packing operations. This will involve the installation of two graders on each site which will be fed directly from buildings housing caged birds. The farm graders will pack mixed weight product and the technique is recognised as the most cost-effective way of packing intensive eggs.
"Mixed weight packing provides an opportunity to supply our customers with a quality product which meets their price aspirations," said Mr Kent.
The company acknowledges that significant redundancies will result from the closures, although drivers' jobs at all three centres are said to be safe.
"The company sincerely regrets the job losses that will follow from these proposals but the current situation requires a radical restructuring of our packing centre base," said Mr Kent. "The egg industry continues to experience very difficult trading conditions and we must address our cost base."
Noble Foods aims to pack the majority of its cage eggs on farm and have two major packing centres concentrating on free range, organic and barn eggs. One of these operations will be based at Lacock in Wiltshire, which is home to Stonegate's flagship packing centre and already only handling eggs from alternative systems. The other will be located at North Scarle in Lincolnshire which is the Deans site which has just reopened following an extensive fire last year.
The Thornton site in Fife, Scotland, will remain self-contained packing all categories of egg whilst the former Freshlay packing operation in Holsworthy, Devon, will also continue grading intensive and alternative system eggs.
