Dairy Crest plan jobs axe - but Shropshire plant safe

Dairy Crest today announced plans to axe almost 500 jobs in the UK but said positions at its plant in Shropshire were safe.

The firm has proposed the closure of its glass bottling dairy at Aintree near Liverpool, where 220 people work, and a site at Fenstanton in Cambridgeshire which employs 250 people.

The announcement is not expected to affect the dairy at Crudgington near Telford, which produces its Country Life butter brand.

The move will see work transferred to three other bottling plants in Gloucestershire, London and Derbyshire.

Dairy Crest said it was battling an 'extremely challenging' market for liquid milk and said the plans, which are subject to staff consultation, would help it reduce costs and sustain profitability.

The move comes the day after the firm learned its contract to supply milk to Tesco would not be renewed.