By Josh Brooks

Milk bottle producer Nampak Plastics Europe has announced plans to make 80 redundancies at its Newport Pagnell facility following the collapse of client Dairy Farmers of Britain (DFB).

 

Staff at the Buckinghamshire plant were told this morning of the plan to cut back production following the loss of business from the dairy co-operative.

 

A 30-day consultation period began today at Nampak Plastics' Newport Pagnell support plant. The company said that following the redundancies, around 120 staff would work at the plant.

 

Nampak Plastics said in a statement to Packaging News that it had been "adversely affected" by closures of DFB's liquid milk sites and the tough economic environment, which had led it to review its blowmoulding capacity in the UK.

 

Dairy Farmers of Britain was put into the hands of receivers at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) on 3 June, and, according to PwC, the business stopped receiving milk from its farmers on 16 July.

 

In its most recent update, published at the end of July, PwC said that buyers had not been found for three DFB dairies in Bridgend, Blaydon and Lincoln.

 

Nampak Plastics managing director Eric Collins said: "It is with great regret that we have made this announcement to our staff at Newport Pagnell. However, we have to respond to the tough market conditions we are trading in.

 

"A 30-day consultation period has now been entered into with our workforce and we will support them as much as possible during this time of upheaval and significant change.

 

"This has been a very difficult decision to make. However, during these challenging times, we remain focused on ensuring that we continue to deliver a high quality service and product to our customers."