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'500 jobs lost' as Birds Eye ends factory production

11/01/2007

Hundreds of workers are in line to lose their jobs after Birds Eye announced that it will close its remaining frozen food factory in northern England.

Production at the Hull plant will be moved to Bremerhaven in Germany and Lowestoft, Suffolk, from September onwards.

The firm says that 490 jobs will be cut, but the GMB union puts the figure higher at 600.

Workers were informed of the news at a staff meeting earlier today, five months after parent company Unilever sold the iconic frozen food business to private equity group Permira.

Dubbing the situation as "grim", GMB senior organiser John Wilson said the union would "fight a vigorous campaign to stop [workers'] jobs being exported".

The 17-acre Hull factory has been producing Birds Eye food for 40 years. In 2004 Unilever announced the closure of a separate factory in neighbouring Grimsby.

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