500 jobs to be eaten up in Uniq’s reshuffle |
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Tue, 24 May 2005 11:30
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Uniq, the convenience foods group is getting the chills after its pre tax profits plummeted to radically low levels, compelling it to announce a cost-cutting and restructuring program for the company.
Close on the heels of the chief executive, Bill Ronald’s ousting from the group merely a couple of months ago, Uniq has planned to slash about 500 more people as part of its restructuring program.
Nigel Stapleton, chairman of Uniq that manufactures and supplies salads, sandwiches, desserts along with ready meals to biggies like Marks and Spencer, confirmed that the company would be saving a considerable £20m annually through its redundancies. He said, “There is always a treadmill to be leaner and meaner than any other supplier. Unfortunately, we have not been running around the treadmill as long as other suppliers.”
| Uniq will be hacking about 100 jobs in Britain and the remaining job cuts will be affected in northern Europe. Most redundancies in UK are expected to happen at the company’s headquarters, at Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire. The foods group has recently been in deep water and its pre-tax losses are enough to tell you the depressing tale.
Uniq registered an increase in its pre-tax losses, which scaled higher from £15.6m last year to £70.6m this year. Moreover, its turnover also fell 7pc to become £879m. It incurred huge losses on account of losing an important contract from J Sainsbury, along with its involvement in unsuccessful acquisition deals.
However, the company has managed to win an £18m worth contract with Tesco and Stapleton called it “a major step” which also demonstrated “the importance of having scale.”
In an optimistic tone, he added, “The performance in the UK has now stabilised and the prospects for our business in continental Europe remain positive. While we do not expect an immediate improvement in financial performance, we believe the actions taken will positively impact the second half of the year.”
Meanwhile, an apt substitute to assume chief executive, Ronald’s position was still to be found.
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