Wiseman mulls dairy job cuts

Published on Sunday 15 May 2005 01:09

ROBERT Wiseman Dairies is considering cutting jobs from its Scottish milk operations following the loss of major contracts with supermarket chains Morrison and Asda.

The East Kilbride-based dairy empire will reveal this week that its profits fell by 15% last year to about 25m after a costly year of contract battles with its bitter rivals Arla and Dairy Crest.

Wiseman has emerged largely unscathed from the latest skirmish of the milk wars thanks to contracts won from Tesco and Sainsbury. But all the business it has lost has been in the Scottish market, with its new business channelled through dairies south of the Border.

A spokesman for the group said: "No decisions have been made. We are certainly going to review our infrastructure needs across the UK to ensure that it is aligned to the needs of the business. But this is still a growing business."

The profits drop is believed to have been caused by a six-month fallow spell after the Asda contract ended and before the Tesco and Sainsbury deals kicked in. The group’s milk production is believed to have slipped to about 1.2 billion litres compared to 1.35 billion last year.

Wiseman’s dominance of the Scottish market has prompted numerous enquiries by competition watchdogs in recent years. But in the past 12 months the firm’s market share of Scotland’s liquid milk sales has been slashed from 70% to 54%.

Arla, which owns the Claymore milk business in Nairn and was behind most of the complaints to the competition watchdogs, has seen its share treble to 21%.