Uniq reveals 300 jobs will go in bid to save £20m

Convenience foods group Uniq is cutting 300 jobs as part of plans to save more than £20 million a year.

About 100 jobs will disappear in the UK and the remainder in Northern Europe after Uniq saw pretax losses widen to £70.6 million from £15.6 million in the year to March 31.

Many of the cuts in the UK will take place among staff at its head office in Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire.

Uniq supplies sandwiches and other products to retailers including Marks & Spencer, employing 4,000 people in the UK and 5,000 staff in mainland Europe.

The Minsterley desserts factory in Shropshire, acquired by Uniq last year, contributed sales of £50.5 million and an operating loss of £3.4 million.

The group hopes it will break even by the second half.

Yesterday's announcement is the first time that Uniq has said precisely how it will achieve a target of at least £6 million of savings in the 2005/06 financial year, growing to £20 million a year by 2007/08.

The overhaul was agreed during the five months in which the company was the subject of takeover interest. Bid talks - thought to be with a private equity firm - collapsed in March amid concerns over the impact of a near £100 million deficit in Uniq's pension fund.

Chairman Nigel Stapleton said the company had had an "extremely challenging" year which the uncertainty of the bid period had exacerbated.

The bottom-line losses of £70.6 million included a £28 million write-down of assets such as Uniq's fish and salad business in the UK.

Stripping out the one-off costs meant the company made profits of £22.5 million during the year, down from £24.7 million at the same stage of 2004.

Mr Stapleton said trading in the UK had stabilised after Uniq lost key contracts as competition intensified among customers in the food retail sector.

Operating losses of £5.8 million in the UK marked a sharp reversal on the £12.8 million profits last year.

Outside the UK, Uniq said its businesses were performing more encouragingly with operating profits in northern Europe up 60 per cent and up 18 per cent in southern Europe.