Nestlé has announced plans to close its Froneri ice cream facility in Beauvais, near Paris, next March.
The move will result in the loss of some 317 jobs at the facility, 241 of which are involved in production, and 76 in the on-site development centre.
The planned closure was brought about as a result of production costs being 'too high' at the site, according to Nestlé.
Union Response
Unions have responded to the announcement with anger.
"I am appalled by Nestlé's lack of social responsibility, it's pure cynicism," Valérie Gayte, president of the national agro-food trade union (SNI2A) CFE-CGC was quoted as saying by Europe1.
"It is out of the question that employees who have worked all their lives for a company could be swept away in a couple of months."
Froneri was formed out of a joint venture between Nestlé and R & R in 2016, and the group operates four production sites in France. The Beauvais facility opened in 1972.
© 2018 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Stephen Wynne-Jones. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: European Supermarket Magazine.
