Kraft pledge on manufacturing jobs

CADBURY workers have been assured by new owners Kraft Foods that there will be no further manufacturing job losses in the UK for at least two years.

Kraft vice president Marc Firestone gave the assurance yesterday when being questioned by MPs on the Business Select Committee.

Mr Firestone, who told the committee he was personally “very sorry” for the firm’s reversal on its earlier pledge to keep the plant at Keynsham, near Bristol, open, also said there would be no further factory closures in the UK in the same period.

The pledge to keep the Keynsham plant open had been made in good faith, Mr Firestone told the MPs. He said the company had expected there would be enough demand to keep the plant going.

However, he added that when the extent of the investment by Cadbury in new manufacturing facilities in Poland had become clear, Kraft had been left with no option other than to close down the plant.

Mr Firestone said Kraft remained 100% committed to helping the workers from the Bristol plant find new jobs.

Earlier in the hearing, Jack Dromery from the Unite union had branded Kraft cynical for saying it would keep the plant open.
He said the company should have known prior to takeover that it had not been possible to keep the plant open.

The handling of the matter has already been referred to the City’s takeover panel, which monitors takeovers and mergers.

Mr Firestone defended his company by claiming that it would have been impossible to know what was happening before takeover as the two firms were not in negotiations because of the hostile bid.

MPs on the committee said the pledge to keep the plant open should not have been made until all the facts were clear thereby preventing workers from being misled.

Also in the session, former Cadbury boss Trevor Bond, who now heads up Kraft in Europe, said the US firm had no plans to rebrand any Cadbury products in the UK.