Restructuring events
European Restructuring Monitor (ERM)
The restructuring events database contains factsheets with data on large-scale restructuring events reported in the principal national media and company websites in each EU Member State. This database was created in 2002.
Food manufacturer, Cadbury will cut 205 jobs from its Bourneville plant in Birmingham. To date, 50 workers have already left with the remainder set to depart over the next two years. Management has said the cuts were necessary to make Bournville more competitive and to secure the factory’s long-term future. As part of the plans, equipment will be updated and new production lines will be added to the plant. A total of 905 workers are currently employed at the factory which makes products including Dairy Milk, Crème Eggs and Wispas. Some employees may be relocated or changed departments as part of the restructuring.
Management has been in formal consultation with Unite union and Cadbury’s staff. Unite has negotiated a deal for the workers where there will be no compulsory redundancies. Those employees who accept voluntary redundancy will receive between four and six weeks of salary for every year of services, with an average redundancy payment of around £100,000 depending on their length of service. Many of the workers who are likely to take voluntary redundancy are aged 55 years or older. Cadbury opened its first shop in Birmingham in 1824. By 1930 it had become the 24th largest manufacturing firm in Britain. Cadbury’s was purchased via a hostile takeover by US food giant Kraft in 2010 (see earlier factsheet from 23 March 2010). Kraft, in turn, is owned by the Mondelez International conglomerate.
Eurofound (2015), Cadbury, Internal restructuring in United Kingdom, factsheet number 78139, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://dev.eurofound.europa.eu/restructuring-events/detail/78139.
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