Arla will close its Castello cheese manufacturing plant in Denmark in 2019, shifting production to a larger dairy in Troldhede.
The dairy group said ‘there are better opportunities to make long-term investments in quality and efficiency’ at the Troldhede site, which is 50 miles northwest of Arla’s Lillebælt Dairy – the plant earmarked for closure.
The company confirmed that the closure would be ‘not before the beginning of 2019’. It told staff at Arla Lillebælt of the closure at the end of last week.
Arla group vice-president Lars Dalsgaard, who has global responsibility for cheese production, said: “Having conducted a thorough analysis of theLillebælt Dairy, this has shown that it is no longer profitable to continue production. It will require substantial investment to secure long-term production at this site. Similarly, by combining the production of white mould cheese at Troldhede Dairy, our costs will be lowered, which will benefit our farmer owners.”
Arla says a plan has been put together to help workers at the Lillebælt Dairy to secure future work following the plant’s closure.
“We have a lot of very good experience in finding new jobs for colleagues affected by such announcements and we will, of course, do all that we can to help the colleagues at Lillebælt Dairy into new employment, either within Arla or externally,” Dalsgaard said.
The company will offer the affected colleagues jobs at its nearby dairies at Korsvej and Taulov, which have benefitted from investment of more than DKK 157 million ($24 million) in expansions and production developments in recent years.
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