Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • Brightmine
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Free trial
    • Request a quote
  • Webinars
  • Advertise
  • OHW+

Personnel Today

Register
Log in
Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • Brightmine
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Free trial
    • Request a quote
  • Webinars
  • Advertise
  • OHW+

Employment lawRedundancy

Kraft pledges redundancy freeze after Cadbury site closure apology

by Personnel Today 16 Mar 2010
by Personnel Today 16 Mar 2010

Kraft has pledged that there will be no compulsory redundancies at Cadbury manufacturing sites for the next two years, after apologising for reneging on a pledge to keep the UK firm’s Keynsham plant open.


Giving evidence to MPs today, Marc Firestone, vice-president of Kraft Foods, said he was “terribly sorry” for the US food company closing the Somerdale plant in Keynsham, despite vowing not to before the £12bn takeover was completed.


Firestone said Kraft stood “100% behind” Somerdale workers and would do all it could to help them find new jobs, reports the BBC.


He also pledged there would be no further closures of manufacturing sites in the UK, and no further compulsory redundancies in manufacturing in the UK in the next two years.


Kraft only decided to close Somerdale when it found out that Cadbury had already spent tens of millions of pounds kitting out a factory in Poland, according to Firestone.


He said there was no way Kraft could have known about Cadbury’s investment in Poland, as the information was not in the public domain and the two companies were not talking with each other during the hostile bid.


But the committee of MPs said they found it hard to believe that Kraft could not have known the full extent of Cadbury’s investment in its new Polish factory.


Jack Dromey, deputy general secretary of the Unite union, who also gave evidence to the committee, said the MPs proved that Kraft had “lied”.


Sign up to our weekly round-up of HR news and guidance

Receive the Personnel Today Direct e-newsletter every Wednesday

OptOut
This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

“Six thousand Cadbury workers will never trust Kraft’s chief executive officer Irene Rosenfeld unless she personally meets the workers and guarantees investment, no factory closures or compulsory redundancies, and that their pay and pensions are safe for five years,” he said.


“The all-party select committee forced Kraft to take stumbling steps in the right direction, but the company needs to go further and agree a five-year guarantee to rebuild trust.”

Personnel Today

Personnel Today articles are written by an expert team of award-winning journalists who have been covering HR and L&D for many years. Some of our content is attributed to "Personnel Today" for a number of reasons, including: when numerous authors are associated with writing or editing a piece; or when the author is unknown (particularly for older articles).

previous post
Flexible working push by Jobcentres welcomed by employers
next post
Royal Dutch Shell to cut a further 1,000 jobs

You may also like

Trans row nurse cleared of misconduct as tribunal...

16 Jul 2025

Hugh’s Law calls for paid leave for parents...

16 Jul 2025

Postmasters could take ownership of Post Office

14 Jul 2025

Ministers loosen fire and rehire proposals in Employment...

10 Jul 2025

Court of Appeal rules that Ryanair agency pilot...

9 Jul 2025

Bereavement leave to extend to miscarriages before 24...

7 Jul 2025

Company director wins £15k after being told to...

4 Jul 2025

Microsoft to cut 9,000 jobs globally as role...

3 Jul 2025

How can HR prepare for changes to the...

3 Jul 2025

Top 10 HR questions June 2025: Redundancy consultation

2 Jul 2025

  • Empower and engage for the future: A revolution in talent development (webinar) WEBINAR | As organisations strive...Read more
  • Empowering working parents and productivity during the summer holidays SPONSORED | Businesses play a...Read more
  • AI is here. Your workforce should be ready. SPONSORED | From content creation...Read more

Personnel Today Jobs
 

Search Jobs

PERSONNEL TODAY

About us
Contact us
Browse all HR topics
Email newsletters
Content feeds
Cookies policy
Privacy policy
Terms and conditions

JOBS

Personnel Today Jobs
Post a job
Why advertise with us?

EVENTS & PRODUCTS

The Personnel Today Awards
The RAD Awards
Employee Benefits
Forum for Expatriate Management
OHW+
Whatmedia

ADVERTISING & PR

Advertising opportunities
Features list 2025

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Linkedin


© 2011 - 2025 DVV Media International Ltd

Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • Brightmine
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Free trial
    • Request a quote
  • Webinars
  • Advertise
  • OHW+