Cadbury to close Bristol factory

Cadbury Trebor Bassett is to restructure its chocolate manufacturing production.
The phased closure of the Keynsham chocolate factory in Bristol will affect
500 employees.

Chocolate production will move to Bournville, Birmingham and Poland. The Bournville site is to receive an additional £40 million investment although an additional 200 jobs will also be lost.

The investment, the company said, would enhance Bournville’s status as a centre of excellence for chocolate production and enable greater efficiencies within the site’s chocolate assortment production. The closure, scheduled for 2009, will take one year to implement. The other two UK chocolate manufacturing sites at Chirk in North Wales and Leominster, Herefordshire are unaffected.

Trevor Bond, managing drirector, commented,“Cadbury is a great British company which has become an international success. In order to compete in the extremely competitive confectionery industry in the future we need to make the right decisions today. Whilst the proposed closure of our Keynsham factory will be difficult for those affected, our ongoing commitment to manufacturing in the UK is absolute. The significant investment in Bournville is a testament to that.

The J S Fry and Sons chocolate business – which merged with Cadbury in 1919 – moved to the Keynsham site in 1935. At its height the Keynsham workforce was in excess of 5,000. In line with the Quaker beliefs of Cadbury and Fry the directors believed in the spirit of ‘Happiness in Industry’.