Jobs at sweet factory ‘safe’

10:29am Tuesday 26th February 2008

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JOBS at a sweet factory in York are safe, it was revealed today.

Steven Joseph, chairman of Tangerine, the new owners of Monkhill Confectionery, said as far as anyone could give assurances about the future, none of the 350 jobs at Low Poppleton Lane plant would be affected.

He also said shift patterns would remain the same at the £80 million turnover factory.

His remarks will be a relief to the workers who help manufacture two million sweets a year, including household names like Sharps of York, Barratt Sherbert Fountains, Jameson's chocolates, Trebor Basset mints and, at its Pontefract factory, Butterkist popcorn.

They have been in consultation with Tangerine management in the month long run-up to the official handover.

Already John Kirk, the Yorkshire organiser for the GMB Union has welcomed the assurance.

He said: "For a change, it's good news for York rather than the bad news we have had for other manufacturing areas."

Mr Joseph said that, if anything, the £58 million cash deal formally signed yesterday with Cadbury's Schweppes to acquire Monkhill's three factories at York, Cleckheaton and Pontefract, plus distribution centre at Holmewood, near Chesterfield, Derbyshire, would mean expansion at York.

Along with other Monkhill plants, York would benefit from some outside manufacturing being moved in-house.

Mr Joseph said: "Some work that was done by Cadbury's Trebor Bassett factory in Sheffield for Monkhill will now come back to Tangerine.

"Some products, like Liquorice Allsorts, won't be suitable for York, but Mint Imperials will. We also hope to put more work through York by winning new business".

That could mean more jobs at York rather then fewer, he added.

He said there would be some redundancies in office and financial staff where jobs are duplicated at Monkhill's head office in Pontefract and at Tangerine's, in Blackpool.

But the factory administration on site at York would not be affected and nor would sales staff.

Mr Joseph said the York plant was close to hearts of Tangerine's management.

Chris Marshall, who now takes over as managing director of the enlarged Tangerine, is a former managing director of Cravens on the Low Poppleton Lane site before it was taken over by Monkhill.

Mr Joseph said: "We are looking forward to an exciting future. We attended meetings with staff representatives and met union leaders and we had a very positive dialogue."

Mr Joseph, a former chief executive of the Portfolio Foods Group, which was sold to Cadbury's in 1996, then led Shippam for five years. Later he was involved in the newly-formed Tangerine Confectionery which acquired Toms Confectionery, of Denmark and last year bought the confectionery arm of Burtons under the Tangerine banner.

The Monkhill acquisition turns Tangerine into the UK's largest independent confectionery firm, boosting its turnover prospects from £60 million to £150 million.