Dairy Farmers of Britain – sale of 5 depots
Dairy Farmers of Britain (in receivership) - PwC announces sale of five depots saving 172 jobs.
Dairy Farmers of Britain (in receivership) – PwC announces sale of five depots saving 172 jobs….
Following their appointment on 3 June 2009, Stephen Oldfield, David Kelly and Ian Green of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (PwC) the joint receivers and managers of Dairy Farmers of Britain Limited (DFB), are announcing they have successfully sold four of the depots in the liquids division of Dairy Farmers of Britain to The Capital Dairy Company Limited and the Cheshunt depot to Braeforge Limited.
The sales completed over the weekend and yesterday and have resulted in the transfer of 172 jobs to the new owners. The depots sold to the Capital Dairy Company Limited are in Newark, Skegness, Spalding, Hillsborough.
David Kelly, joint receiver and manager and director at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP said,
“After the failure of the rescue bid for Blaydon dairy on Friday we have focused on trying to secure a future for the employees in the depots. Work throughout the weekend and yesterday saw two deals across the line with Capital Dairies and Braeforge Limited which have preserved employment for the staff at 5 of the depots. I am delighted for the employees who would not have had milk to deliver and faced redundancy today if we had not completed the deal yesterday. This result is particularly good given the closure of the Lincoln dairy last week which supplied these depots and shows how important it is to try and find buyers for businesses and save jobs right up until the last minute”
Unfortunately, the receivers were unable to secure deals for the remaining depots as customers have withdrawn their business, leaving the depots with no milk to deliver. Those depots which have had to close (with the number of employees in brackets) are Carlisle, Blaydon, South Shields, Benton, Aberdare, Leeds, Tweedside, Scarborough, Team Valley, Norton, Yorkshire, Portsmouth, Shiregreen, South Teeside, Bedlington, Enfield and Nantwich.
The 250 staff at these depots have therefore been made redundant and will be paid all arrears of pay up to and including the day they leave the depot site. They will also be paid by the Redundancy Payments Office holiday pay, pay in lieu of notice and redundancy up to the statutory limits.
