{"id":8378,"date":"2016-04-13T16:27:00","date_gmt":"2016-04-13T15:27:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=8378"},"modified":"2016-04-13T16:27:00","modified_gmt":"2016-04-13T15:27:00","slug":"repay-our-loyalty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=8378","title":{"rendered":"Repay our loyalty"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"fb-root\"><\/div>\n<p>Unite today (April 13) urged the Dublin-based drinks giant C&amp;C to find a buyer for its Shepton Cider Mill in Somerset, which is set to close this summer with the loss of 120 jobs.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The closure follows C&amp;C\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s decision to move production to Clonmel, where around 80 jobs are expected to be created.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Warning that the closure of Shepton could spell the end to a 246-year tradition of cider-making, Unite regional coordinating officer Steve Preddy said that\u00c2\u00a0 iconic brands, such as Blackthorn and Olde English, coupled with a highly-skilled and motivated workforce should make the profitable Shepton site an attractive proposition for a buyer.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bSince buying the plant in 2009, C&amp;C has profited from the association with Shepton, which has been synonymous with cider-making for centuries,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt is unacceptable that the company should now decide to divest itself of the plant and its loyal workforce without a backward glance.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bCommunities throughout Ireland have suffered the consequences of multi-nationals pulling out, leaving devastated communities in their wake.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bUnite members are therefore particularly disappointed that an Irish multi-national, such as C&amp;C, should be effectively discarding not only the Shepton facility and its workforce, but also the long tradition of cider-making which made Shepton such an attractive location in the first place,&#8221; Preddy added.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe are calling on C&amp;C to repay the loyalty and hard work of the Shepton workforce by finding a buyer to take on the main Shepton site as a going concern \u00e2\u20ac\u201c thus preserving a tradition of cider-making in the town stretching back to 1770.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe believe that iconic brands, combined with a highly-skilled and motivated workforce, would make Shepton a very attractive proposition for a buyer.\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 (about \u00c2\u014181 million). Full year results will be officially announced on May 11. The company\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s annual general meeting is set for July 7.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Unite today (April 13) urged the Dublin-based drinks giant C&amp;C to find a buyer for its Shepton Cider Mill in Somerset, which is set to close this summer with the loss of 120 jobs. &nbsp; The closure follows C&amp;C\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s decision to move production to Clonmel, where around 80 jobs are expected to be created. &nbsp; [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7847,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[487,488],"wps_subtitle":"Irish drinks giant urged to find buyer for Somerset cider mill","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8378"}],"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=8378"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8378\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8379,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8378\/revisions\/8379"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7847"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8378"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}