Unilever Australasia has today (25 Oct) announced the closure of its dry foods manufacturing facility at Knoxfield, Melbourne. The announcement follows a review of the supply option for these products. This has been brought about by the need to remain competitive in the market, while at the same time generating sufficient funds to adequately invest in our foods business.
The Knoxfield factory produces Continental brand products such as Cup-a-Soup, Pasta & Sauce and Recipe Mixes.
We have identified two possible production alternatives:
1) Transferring dry food manufacturing to the Unilever dry food factory in Thailand or;
2) Transferring dry food manufacturing to the Unilever Factory at Tatura, near Shepparton, Victoria. The Tatura Factory is currently a ‘wet food’ operation manufacturing products such as Continental wet sauces and Lipton Ice Tea.
Detailed studies for both options are currently underway to determine which of the two is optimal, and preliminary investigations indicate that either option provides a significantly lower cost base to the current Knoxfield facility. However our preference is obviously to keep manufacturing within Australia, and we are working with the Victorian Government towards making this happen.
Over the past 12 months, we have regularly updated all employees at Knoxfield and their representatives on the progress of the sourcing study, and they have been aware of the possibility of closure. We announced final confirmation of the closure on site today.
We expect that the site will close during 2008.
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