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Union anger over Birds Eye sale

7th September 2006
Page 19
Page 19, 7th September 2006 — Union anger over Birds Eye sale
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YEARSLEY GROUP, which took over the distribution of Birds Eye frozen foods when Celsius First went into administration in March, has played down any potential fallout from the sale of the food manufacturer to a firm of venture capitalists.

Birds Eye's owner, Unilever,has decided to sell the majority of its European frozen foods business to Permira Funds for €1.7251m (i1.16bn). The GMB union has reacted angrily. branding Permira "asset strippers". It is concerned about the future of the 900 workers at sites in Lowestoft, Suffolk and Hull, East Yorkshire.

Jade Ashworth, assistant buyer at Yearsley Group, says the sale will have no impact on its drivers: "They use us for transport, but [the sa]e] wouldn't affect us."Ashworth adds that the size of Yearsley Group's client base is substantial so even if the sale disrupted its deliveries it would not affect its business as a whole.

However, the GMB's Paul Maloney says: "[Our] experience of Permira is one of a company [interested in making] a quick profit at the cost ofjobs and industry.When it took over theAmomobile Association it sacked 3,400 of the 10,000 employees."

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Organisations: theAmomobile Association
Locations: Hull

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