Hundreds of jobs under threat as proposed closure of Bury St Edmunds meat plant announced

Pilgrim’s UK has announced the proposed closure of its Bury St Edmunds site as part of a business recovery plan across its UK operations.

Over the last 18 months the UK pig sector has faced the most challenging time in its history due to increases in production costs, falling pig prices, a decline in demand, labour shortages and restrictions on the ability to export from some sites.

The ongoing challenges resulted in Pilgrim’s UK recording an operating loss of £16 million for the year to December 26, 2021.

As part of the firm's business recovery plan it identified some significantly under-utilised sites and has proposed to close its Bury site and transfer the lamb and bacon operations to Pilgrim’s UK sites at Andover and Linton.

The proposal puts around 290 employees at risk of redundancy.

The business will enter into collective consultation with affected employees in the coming days, following the election of employee representatives.

Rachel Baldwin, Pilgrim’s UK vice-president of HR, said: “The decision to propose the closure of our Bury site has not been taken lightly but is unfortunately essential to help our business recover and secure a sustainable future for all of our team members across the UK.

“Clearly, this announcement will have major implications, not just for our site but the entire local community.

"We will do everything we can to minimise the impact of these proposals, working closely with local authorities and agencies to support our team members through what we know will be an extremely difficult period.”