Morrisons planning to close Rathbones bakery arm with hundreds of jobs at risk

Morrisons are planning to close Rathbones bakery arm and almost 400 workers are facing redundancy and unions have hit out accusing the supermarket chain of throwing “workers on the scrapheap” since the company’s private equity takeover in 2021.

Morrisons is the UK’s fifth largest supermarket and have said they’ve started consultation over the proposed closure after a “thorough review.”

The closure of the bakery operation could see 378 workers being made redundant.

A spokesman for Morrisons said, “After a period of growth and investment, the business has been loss making for a number of years.

“Although we have tried several routes to return the business to profitability, none have been successful.

“The current proposals do unfortunately mean that colleagues at the site are at risk of redundancy and we will do everything we can to help those colleagues affected, including investigating whether there are any other suitable roles elsewhere in the group.”

Sarah Woolley, general secretary of the Bakers, Food and Allied Workers Union, said, “Since Morrisons were bought out by Clayton, Dubilier & Rice in 2021 we have seen the traditional cycle of private equity firm behaviour post-takeover that throws workers on the scrapheap without even a glance back.

“They have asset stripped Morrisons, with our members now bearing the brunt of their mismanagement with this short-sighted decision to close the site.

“This treatment of people is plain wrong and unfair on the hundreds of people who work at the site and who have had their lives turned upside down by this decision.”