Chicken factory closure confirmed

The 2 Sisters Food Group has confirmed that the Smethwick plant in the West Midlands will close on June 23 this year.

The poultry processing plant employs 630 workers and 530 of them are Unite members.

“Through intensive negotiations we have managed to save about 250 jobs which will be taken up by other 2 Sisters’ sites in the West Midlands,” said Julia Long, Unite’s national officer for the food industry.

“Unfortunately, this still means that some 300 workers face redundancy,” she added.

The 2 Sisters Food Group said that the factory at Bevan Way, Alpha Business Park is ‘ageing’ which is the reason behind the closure. “However, given the company’s business case that this site was ageing and needed drastic modernisation to conform environmentally, we believe that this was the only achievable outcome,” said Julia.

The factory, which opened in 1996 processes more than 1,000 tonnes of chicken each week and supplies chicken portions and whole birds to retailers and other 2 Sisters sites.

“Unite always has the welfare of its members as the top priority and we are continuing to support them in the days and weeks ahead,” added Julia.