{"id":8260,"date":"2016-04-01T12:27:45","date_gmt":"2016-04-01T11:27:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=8260"},"modified":"2016-04-01T12:27:45","modified_gmt":"2016-04-01T11:27:45","slug":"buy-cider-mill-call","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=8260","title":{"rendered":"Buy cider mill call"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"fb-root\"><\/div>\n<p>Production of\u00c2\u00a0 iconic Somerset cider brands ceased production this week at the Shepton Mallet Cider Mill, as Unite reiterated its call today (April 1) for the Irish owners to urgently find a buyer for the site.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The Dublin-based C&amp;C Group has now stopped the production of the Somerset ciders Addlestones, Blackthorn, Natch and Olde English.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 Production will now be at Clonmel in the Irish Republic.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe last batch of these ciders has been made this week,&#8221; said Unite regional coordinating officer Steve Preddy. &#8220;The last sugars and yeast have been added to the cider fermentation as the company appears hell-bent on shutting down this profitable mill.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe fear famous Somerset ciders with names such as Dry Blackthorn could be lost forever with 120 dedicated workers losing their jobs and a 246-year-old cider-making heritage in the town disappearing forever,&#8221; he added.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe closure is completely unnecessary as C&amp;C Group has a company-wide profit forecast of \u00e2\u201a\u00ac103 million \u00e2\u20ac\u201c that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s about \u00c2\u014181 million at today\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s exchange rate.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bAgain, Unite urges the company to find a buyer for both the site and the brand, as that combination will make the cider mill an even more attractive prospect for a potential buyer,&#8221; Preddy went on to say.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWhat is happening at Shepton Mallet is economic vandalism by a multi-national that cares not one jot for its hardworking employees. This threatened closure will devastate a long-established community built up around cider-making.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>A recent trading update from the company expected the operating profit across its operations for the 12 months to February 29, 2016 to be in the region of \u00e2\u201a\u00ac103 million. Trading in the last quarter provides \u00e2\u20ac\u0098grounds for optimism\u00e2\u20ac\u2122. Results for the year will be announced on May 11.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The cider mill is due to close in the summer when production ceases and the pulped fruit is transported to Ireland \u00e2\u20ac\u201c the first 40 redundancies have already been announced.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Production of\u00c2\u00a0 iconic Somerset cider brands ceased production this week at the Shepton Mallet Cider Mill, as Unite reiterated its call today (April 1) for the Irish owners to urgently find a buyer for the site. &nbsp; The Dublin-based C&amp;C Group has now stopped the production of the Somerset ciders Addlestones, Blackthorn, Natch and Olde [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7533,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[487,488],"wps_subtitle":"Iconic Somerset cider brands cease production","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8260"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8260"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8260\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8261,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8260\/revisions\/8261"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7533"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8260"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8260"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8260"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}