Vion Food to restructure operations in Germany

Dutch food company Vion is set to restructure its operations in Germany in order to further strengthen its presence within the regional agricultural sector.

Under the new plan, the company’s slaughterhouses and meat cutting facilities in Emstek and Zeven in the state of Lower Saxony and Perleberg, Brandenburg will occupy a central position.

Vion’s executive board and the management team are seeking to improve the company’s efficiency through this concentration.

In addition, the company has stated that the smaller sites operated by its Business Unit Pork will be divested.

Vion Food plans to shut down its slaughterhouses in Kasel-Golzig and Minden, which each process around 5,000 pigs per week, a move that will result in up to 198 job losses – around 113 of Vion’s own employees and 85 people hired through external service providers.

Following the closure, the suppliers of the Minden site will deliver to the company’s Emstek and Zeven facilities, while Perleberg and Altenburg will cater to the producers who used to deliver to Vion Lausitz.

Vion Food said that customers from the meat-processing industry and food retail will continue to receive their products with the same trusted quality and freshness.

The consolidation is part of Vion’s economic and strategic optimisation of its 39 German sites which was initiated in April this year.

In line with this strategy, Vion also intends to suspend frozen convenience production at its Wunstorf site as it is no longer part of the company’s core business and will soon begin the sales process for the division.

Vion will conduct meetings with the Works Councils in order to discuss compensation and redundancy schemes, and has scheduled timely termination of the contracts with external service providers.

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Image: As part of the restructuring, Vion will divest the smaller sites operated by its Business Unit Pork in Germany. Photo courtesy of antpkr.