Chelmsford has been rocked by the news that one of its greatest enterprises, Britvic, is to close down its Chelmsford factory.
Britvic employs 131 people in Chelmsford and ranks as one of the most successful businesses to be born in Chelmsford. Britvic have the rights to produce and distribute some of the leading brands of soft drink to the UK market from PepsiCo.
Britvic will be closing 2 of its factories in the UK. The reasons given for closure are that Britvic needs to make itself more competitive and reduce its costs.
The closure is still in the planning stage and it is possible that a solution will be found. Britvic has said that it will speaking with its Chelmsford staff and hopes to redeploy all staff within other parts of the business, thus minimising the risk of redundancies and job losses.
The new Britvic headquarters in Hemel Hempstead has the capacity to take on the office staff in Chelmsford.
Britvic also has factories in Beckton (London), Huddersfield, Leeds, Norwich and Rugby. As well as the HQ in Hemel Hempstead they also have offices in Solihull and Tamworth.
AG Barr Merger Cancelled?
However, the news of job losses has not a total surprise at Britvic announced that around 500 jobs would be lost if there the proposed merger with AG Barr, who own the Irn Bru brand, was to go ahead.
It is thought that the closure of Chelmsford will help Britvic to reduce costs and therefore not need to merge with AG Barr – it will remain an independent businesses.
According to Britvic’s 2012 annual report they plan to build on their expansion into the US market with their Fruit Shoot produce. Fruit Shoots are one of the most popular children’s soft drinks and there is a large market opportunity overseas in countries where “soda” drinks still dominate the soft drinks market.
