More redundancies at Bernard Matthews

TURKEY giant Bernard Matthews Farms revealed yesterday that it will look to shed further jobs in the face of the "challenging" economic climate.

The company has started two separate redundancy consultations with staff and expects to see 44 posts go from its 2,270-strong workforce.

The employees facing of redundancy were described as "salaried staff and hourly paid engineers" - suggesting that managers and "line leaders" rather than production line workers were at risk of losing their jobs.

It is understood that the redundancies affect staff at both the firm's Great Witchingham headquarters and its facility at Holton in Suffolk.

The move comes two months after the appointment food industry veteran Jeff Halliwell as the new Bernard Matthews Farms UK managing director.

Yesterday Andrew Sherwood, Bernard Matthews Farms' human resources director, said: "As a company we are constantly looking at ways of making the business better able to cope with the challenging and highly competitive economic environment and these structural changes are part of this process.

"Our priority is to make Bernard Matthews as efficient as possible to ensure a sustainable future for the whole workforce.

"We will be entering into consultation with affected staff, which may cause a degree of uncertainty for these individuals. To minimise this it is our intention to provide regular information updates throughout the process."

In June, Bernard Matthews Farms announced that 495 workers at its cooked meat factory at Great Witchingham would lose one days work for three weeks to cope with changes in "short-term seasonal demand".

It is understood those workers are now back to their full-time working week.

But about 95 processing jobs and a further 35 administrative or salaried posts were lost at the beginning of this year. Last year the firm launched a �3m marketing campaign which emphasised its roots in British farming and a move away from artificial colours and flavours in its products.