Morrisons puts 400 jobs at risk after failing to turn around loss-making bakery

Supermarket giant Morrisons has confirmed plans to close a loss-making bakery in a move which has put almost 400 jobs at risk.

The Bradford-headquartered grocer is looking to shut down Rathbones after failing to return the business to profit.

The bakery was acquired by Morrisons out of administration in 2005 but has been loss making for multiple years.

In its latest set of accounts, for the year to end of October 2023, Rathbones posted a pre-tax loss of £3.6m on a turnover of £70.5m.

Morrisons itself has been owned by US private equity group Clayton, Dubilier & Rice since 2021.

Morrisons still ‘considering all alternative options’

A Morrisons spokesman said: “We acquired Rathbones from administration in 2005. 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.

“Over the last few months we have conducted a thorough review of the options for the future of Rathbones.

“This has led us to consider the possibility of closing the site. However, we are considering all alternative options, and want to work with our partner union BFAWU, together with employee representatives, on how we could change our current business model and safeguard as many jobs as possible.

“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.  

“Our in-store Market Street bakeries remain unaffected and will continue to serve customers freshly made bakery products every day.”

The news comes after fellow private equity-owned supermarket chain Asda announced plans to cut 500 head office jobs and order its workers back to the office three days a week.