Dairy distribution jobs may still be saved

Jun 15 2009 By Dan Warburton, The Journal

 

A meeting is being staged on Wednesday where out-of-work staff will discuss their redundancy packages and possible avenues for recruitment.

And last night Blaydon MP Dave Anderson said he was meeting local businessmen who were trying to recruit those who had been made redundant. He said: "There are some people who are trying to create jobs and freezing their recruitment drives to select directly from those who have lost their jobs.

"So there is support coming from local businesses who are trying to intervene.

"But everyone is gutted. We came so close to saving the company and everybody believed there was a good chance and then to be told it wasn’t going to happen was devastating."

DFB went into receivership on June 3, owing £20m in unpaid milk cheques to its co-operative members.

Blaydon was the final DFB dairy still in operation after PWC shut the group’s sites in Bridgend and Lincoln last week. Regional business chiefs claimed the collapse of the business could see more than 500 jobs go and have an impact on hundreds of farmers across the region.

It is believed members of the DFB are thousands of pounds out of pocket after the company announced its closure. They are owed an estimated £14,000 each for milk they produced during May – adding to the £25,000 each of them paid to be a part of the company in the first instance.

But it is thought that more than half of the dairy farmers affected have already found new contracts with different milk processors.

Mr Gibb said: "The collapse of DFB will add to our haulage costs because Blaydon was a big outfit with a tremendous amount of milk going through it.

"Transportation costs will affect farmers in Durham, Northumberland and across Cumbria. There are more than half of dairy farmers who have found new contracts, but there are still those who have not yet got them."