Cadbury owner pledges £75m investment in Bournville but refuses to rule out job losses

CADBURY owner Mondelēz International is to invest £75m into the firm’s historic Bournville manufacturing site. However, it has not ruled out job losses at the plant in order to deliver the changes.

The company said the improvements to facilities at the Bournville site were needed because of a competitiveness gap with rival European confectioners.

Along with the pledge to invest, the company is also mounting a consultation with the Bournville workforce about the proposals.

“This will focus on improving capabilities, reducing costs and changes to ways of working that, combined with the investment, will help to close the competitiveness gap between Bournville and its competitors as well as sister factories in Germany and Western Europe.

“The aim is to secure Bournville’s long term future by enabling it to compete more effectively with manufacturing facilities in other European markets,” it said in a statement.

A spokesman for the company said: “This is about securing the next generation of chocolate manufacture at Bournville but in order to do that we have to become more competitive.

“We have been quite open and said this could mean job losses but if production improves then it could lead to future growth.”

The Unite trade union has been informed of the proposals and will be involved as the consultation with workers.

Mondelēz said its plan was to invest in four new state-of-the-art production lines which would reinforce Bournville’s position as a centre of chocolate manufacture.
 
It will also modernise and improve the production of popular lines such as Cadbury’s Roses and Heroes – the first significant new investment in assortments manufacturing for 30 years.

The investment would be delivered in a series of stages during the next three years.

There will be two new lines for chocolate bar production with space to grow further, replacing existing out-of-date lines.

New training and skills programmes will also be implemented.

Mondelēz said this new investment built on an initial £33m investment announced in 2011, and on a range of existing initiatives to cut costs and improve competitiveness.

Neil Chapman, manufacturing director Chocolate UK, Mondelēz International, said: “Bournville has a proud manufacturing heritage and we are committed to ensuring it continues and becomes a world class manufacturing site. This investment would secure the site’s future for the next generation.

“The competitiveness gap we have identified means we are already missing out on important opportunities to grow. Through our consultation, we want to hear as many ideas as possible from our employees on how, alongside our £75m investment, we achieve improvements that boost competitiveness, thereby securing the next generation of manufacturing at Bournville.”