SCOTTISH firm Baxters Food Group have confirmed a number of staff layoffs.
The 150-year-old Scottish firm, which produces food products such as canned soups and sauces, told The National it was due to “unprecedented inflationary pressures”.
A company spokesperson said this ultimately “impacted our business performance”.
The company didn’t confirm the number of layoffs, nor which sites were impacted but claimed it was only a “small number of reductions within our workforce”.
But an anonymous source who first contacted The National claiming to be one of those who lost their job said it had impacted “numerous employees” at “all sites”, including the firm’s headquarters in Fochabers, as well as Edinburgh and North America.
They added: “We were told our contracts were terminated ‘effective immediately’ and the reason given was poor financial performance of the company as a whole this year.
“While my access was removed immediately, employees that were spared have told me that there have been people axed from various departments.”
The full statement from Baxters read: “Like many organisations, we are experiencing unprecedented inflationary pressures which has impacted our business performance. As a result we have made the difficult but necessary decision to make a small number of reductions within our workforce.”
In 2013, ahead of the Scottish independence referendum, the late Gordon Baxter of Baxters Food Group donated £10,000 to Better Together – the campaign for a No vote.
It also emerged in 2021 that former Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson (above) had been appointed as one of the firm’s non-executive directors.
It comes after it was recently reported that another historic Scottish firm, the maker of Tunnock’s Teacakes, has seen profits drop by more than 80% after the company was hit by an “unprecedented” jump in costs.
