Job losses loom at Westland

The co-op is conducting a review of staff roles throughout Westland Group- made up of Westland Milk, Westland Shanghai and EasiYo.

It says the review is part of an overall programme to gain efficiencies and reduce costs to help restore the company to an industry competitive position and provide shareholders with sustainable returns.

Westland chief executive Toni Brendish says current payout predictions, while higher than for the last two seasons, are still not where shareholders need them to be.

“For some, we will still not be sustainable. We need to get our Group back to returning top value to shareholders.”

The review is likely to result in some staff redundancies but Brendish said she was not going to speculate on how many, or what positions might be affected, until it is complete and any affected staff informed. The review is scheduled for completion by the end of February.

“Westland Group has the capital investment, technical expertise, quality products and resources to recover from last year’s loss and get back to paying shareholders a competitive payout,” Brendish says. “But our current structure, including staff roles, is not set up in the best way to deliver the results we want to achieve.”

Westland says it will not be making any further statement until the review is complete and any impacted staff informed.