Dairy Group Clover Shuts Down Its Plant In Free State
Dairy Group Clover Shuts Down Its Plant In Free State. It has been reported that Clover has shut down one of its plants in Frankfort, Free State and it is believed that 80 people are going to lose their jobs. Last year the company also shut down its North West plant with plans of moving it to KwaZulu-Natal.
“The Frankfort plant was closed yesterday, even though Clover had said at the Competition Tribunal that it was going to give a reasonable alternative way to not retrench workers. Employees were hoping for alternatives, but they were all retrenched. Reasons for the closure and retrenchments of the employees emanates from a so-called project Sencillo, meaning that they wanted to cut jobs,” The national organiser of the General Industries Workers Union of South Africa (Giwusa), Sipho Magudulela told Sunday World.
MEC for agriculture in Free State Thembeni Nxangisa told Sunday World that, “The closing of the dairy factory will compound the impact on the Free State and North West dairy farmers.” The closure of this plant will have a negative impact in the Frankfort community as a lot of people are left without employment. This is happening in a time where the unemployment rate in South Africa is at an all time high.
This closure does not only affect the company and its employees but it also affects other people and organisations that have partnerships with it. These parties will also lose some business which will cause them to lose some revenue too. Clover spokesperson Steven Velthuysen, however, told Sunday World that, “If they say they were retrenched, they are lying, and the plant is not yet shut down completely,” This is because he says the workers willingly chose to take retrenchment packages.
Clover Industries Limited is a branded foods and beverages group that used to be listed on the main board of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. The company was delisted after a takeover by Milco, led by the Central Bottling Company from Israel.
