Dairy Crest slashes factories and jobs

Dairy Crest is pressing ahead with rationalisation plans outlined in its interim results last November.
The company has announced a series of factory expansions and closures in its quest to integrate the Unigate dairy and cheese operations acquired in July 2000 and improve overall efficiency and financial performance. Five plants are to close in all, with almost 800 redundancies.
The first casualty is the Harby Blue Stilton plant in Leicestershire, which will shut in April. Pro- duction will move to Hartington, Derbyshire, where a