A multi-million pound Welsh food business has made some staff redundant. A source close to Abergavenny Fine Foods claimed the lay-offs were "well into double figures". The company, which is well-known for its goat's cheese and vegetarian products, declined to confirm a figure.
Abergavenny Fine Foods, which has sites in Abergavenny, Blaenavon and Cardiff, announced in February a proposal to move its manufacturing operation from a week of five working days to four, and to introduce 12-hour days. A leaked document showed involuntary redundancies were a possibility.
A former employee told WalesOnline the number of redundancies was originally set to be 63 but the eventual number was lower, though allegedly still in double figures. He claimed that some workers were told they would not receive a redundancy package because they had been at the company for less than two years, the minimum length of time for statutory redundancy pay.
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An Abergavenny Fine Foods spokesperson said: "We are pleased to say that the number of redundancies did reduce to less than originally anticipated. This was as a result of some colleagues finding alternative employment in the local area."
A source said some staff experienced problems because the end date of the consultation period was pushed back. "There were a few people who found other jobs because they volunteered for redundancy with a view to being made redundant on March 8," he said. "But the company then kept extending the consultations and people were forced to choose: either leave with nothing and start new jobs, or wait a few weeks and lose any job offers from elsewhere."
A spokesperson for the company responded: "The consultation process took longer than anticipated due to the management team receiving alternative proposals from the consultation group of employee representatives... It is imperative that we fully investigate these and understand the potential impact on both the business and employees of each alternative proposal. We are delighted that one of these proposals was accepted and as such we have moved to a mixed operation of 12-hour shifts and 8 hour shifts that allows people to choose which option works best for the individual and their personal circumstances."
On its website Abergavenny Fine Foods describes itself as "the market leader" in goat's cheese. The company, which is also well-known for free-from and plant-based products, was born in 1981 when the Craske family started making cheese from their six goats' milk. It has grown to become a supplier of Tesco, Lidl, Domino's, M&S, Waitrose, Costco, Co-op, Pizza Hut, Morrisons and other giants.
In 2016 WalesOnline reported how Abergavenny Fine Foods had completed a "remarkable recovery" following a fire which destroyed its old production facility. The company, which had 105 employees at the time, built a new £10m manufacturing plant in Blaenavon which the then-Prince of Wales, Charles, opened just a year after the fire.
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