Hundreds of jobs to go as food factory closes

Up to 340 staff at a poultry plant in Smethwick face redundancy after 2 Sisters Food Group confirmed it was to close the plant.

290 workers have been reassigned to other 2 Sisters sites in the region, and the company said 250 workers had applied for voluntary redundancy. The futures of around 90 staff are still to be decided.

The plant at Alpha Business Park will close on June 23, the union Unite has revealed, in a move it described as “very disappointing”.

Site A, one of two facilities at Alpha Business Park, has been operating for 21 years and supplied retailers and other food companies with chicken portions.

Unite’s national officer for the food industry Julia Long said: “Through intensive negotiations we have managed to save about 250 jobs which will be taken up by other 2 Sisters’ sites in the West Midlands.

“Unfortunately, this still means that some 300 workers face redundancy.

“However, given the company’s business case that this site was ageing and needed drastic modernisation to conform environmentally, we believe that this was the only achievable outcome.”

2 Sisters is owned by Boparan, which also has a restaurant business that includes Harry Ramsden’s, Giraffe and Ed’s Easy Diner.