The UK arm of international agricultural feed firm ForFarmers UK has announced proposals to close its manufacturing site in Crewe before the end of the year.
It’s expected the closure will result in around 23 redundancies.
The feed volume that is currently manufactured by the Crewe mill will be transferred to ForFarmers’ facilities in nearby Newcastle under Lyme, Selby and Preston.
A consultation with impacted employees will begin today. This will include employees at the Newcastle under Lyme site, due to possible changes in its operating structure.
Earlier this year, ForFarmers N.V. announced its efficiency plans to decrease the group operating costs by €10 million by 2021.
These plans include its intention to rationalise the supply chain both in terms of modernising existing mills and in its footprint of site locations.
ForFarmers currently operates 14 production and blending mills in the UK.
However, the firm now sees an opportunity to transfer the feed volumes produced in Crewe to the nearby Newcastle under Lyme mill along with Selby and Preston where sufficient manufacturing and logistics capacity exists.
The aim is to improve overall network utilisation and allow optimisation of overall supply costs. During the process of transferring the manufacturing from the Crewe site, the priority remains to maintain and improve customer satisfaction by consistently delivering good quality feed and excellent service performance.
No formal decision has as yet been taken on the future of the mill in Crewe.
A dedicated project team has been deployed to ensure a seamless transition and execute a full and fair consultation process.
