South Island meat processor Silver Fern Farms has closed its Brooks, United Kingdom, plant with the loss of 64 jobs.Chief executive Keith Cooper said the frozen meat processing facility, wholly owned by the company since 1998, was no longer needed due to
South Island meat processor Silver Fern Farms has closed its Brooks, United Kingdom, plant with the loss of 64 jobs.
Chief executive Keith Cooper said the frozen meat processing facility, wholly owned by the company since 1998, was no longer needed due to operational changes and customer demands.
In the late 1990s, the company sent frozen product to the Brooks site to be processed and packed largely for logistical and presentation reasons, which was unable to be handled in New Zealand.
Since then, Mr Cooper said the position had reverse with almost all carcasses being further processed in New Zealand at integrated slaughter and processing sites.
In addition, demand for chilled products, rather than frozen, has increased and some major UK processors have consolidated processing and packing of chilled meat with a number of larger operators.
“The closure is result of the continued decline in frozen exports from New Zealand due to lower numbers of stock available for slaughter and our focus on achieving a best practice chilled supply chain model, which has resulted in significantly reduced volumes available for processing through the Brooks operation,” he said.
“We continue to observe a major shift in consumption from frozen to chilled product as a result of changing lifestyles and increasing consumer demand for fresh, health and convenient added-value products.”
Mr Cooper said the UK was leading this trend. In 2009, chilled lamb exports from New Zealand grew by 20% and Silver Fern’s chilled growth was even higher.
In partnership with Anzco Foods, Silver Fern also operates processing plants in Los Angeles in the United States and Toronto in Canada.
He said they operated in a different market and were specifically focused on frozen meat.
“Brooks was a model of the past and things have moved on,” he said.
Silver Fern sold the plant two years ago and had been operating under a lease arrangement since then.
The company will retain its marketing and logistics operation in the UK.
