Freshway Chilled Foods to cease production

Freshway Chilled Foods, owned by UK-based food processor Tulip, plans to cease operations at its production facility in Wolverhampton, UK, after a failed attempt to renew a sandwich supply contract with The Foodservice Centre (FSC).

The facility, which employs more than 200 people, will continue to supply FSC until the current contract ends in June.

Freshway Chilled Foods has been catering to FSC for nearly two decades.

The loss of FSC’s business would make the Wolverhampton site economically unsustainable to operate, Tulip said.

Tulip group HR director Kirsty Wilkins said that the loss of the FSC business will result in a 50% reduction in the site’s turnover.

"Whilst we continue to explore ways in which we may be able to secure a future for the business we cannot see a viable alternative to closure at this point in time," Wilkins added.

The company has initiated a 45-day consultation period with Freshway, employees and union representatives over the proposed job losses.

As part of the consultation, it is exploring options to transfer some of the staff to other sites within its manufacturing network.

Tulip also plans to combine the remaining Freshway site operations at its other manufacturing sites with additional capacity.

In 2009, Freshway Chilled Foods entered into administration and was acquired by chilled meat producer Parkam Food; however, both businesses were bought by Tulip two years later.

Established in 2002, Tulip is owned by European pork producer Danish Crown, and employs 8,000 people across its 17 manufacturing sites in the UK.

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Image: The decision to close the plant comes after Freshway’s failure to renew a supply contract with FSC. Photo courtesy of KEKO64 at FreeDigitalPhotos.net.