This morning, while trying desperately to stay awake long enough to eat my crumpets and drink my coffee, Sky News did a piece on the Somerdale Cadburys Chocolate factory near Keynsham in the West Country. It seems that Cadburys are planning to close the factory by 2010, with the loss of 500 jobs in an area that is already struggling in the midst of the recession. Somerdale, and the Bournville factory in Birmingham, which is also set to close with a loss of a further 200 jobs, will be relocated to Poland. However, it seems that this move is part of a long term cost cutting exercise that began last year and is despite a strong performance in a difficult economic climate (in February this year, Reuters reported 2008 pretax profit of £559m with a projected growth in 2009 of around 4%).
This prompted me to wonder two things:
1) How realistic was portraying Willy Wonka as a local hero when he apparently sacked all his workers and hired Oompa-Loompan immigrants at half the salary? And
2) How many other companies were forcing redudancies and making sweeping cost cutting measures while hiding behind the economic downturn?
You may glance back over this blog to find a post concerning the closure of the First Choice Holidays call centre in Salford which certainly has an air of underhandedness about it. How much was their decision influenced by their long term plans, and how much by the recession? At least TUI Travel will be continuing to operate from the UK: I find it strange and troubling that a name with such a strong association with the British national identity should think it a good idea to move a sizeable chunk of their operation to Europe.
Food for thought indeed... or at least chocolate for thought.
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