Business briefs: Dairy closures threatens 470 jobs | C&C | RBS

NEARLY 500 jobs were under threat yesterday after supermarket milk supplier Dairy Crest announced plans to shut two dairies.

The proposed closures involve a glass bottling dairy at Aintree, where 220 people work, and a site at Fenstanton in Cambridgeshire employing 250 people.

Dairy Crest said a recent £75 million investment programme enabled it to transfer work to its three polybottle dairies at Chadwell Heath, Foston and Severnside. The firm employs 4,000 people in its dairies business and 6,000 overall.

Gilliland and Smurfit join C&C board

THE owner of Tennent’s lager yesterday named former Müller Dairies UK chief executive Stewart Gilliland and Tony Smurfit, president of packaging maker Smurfit Kappa, as non-executive directors.

Sir Brian Stewart, chairman of Dublin-listed C&C Group and the former chairman of Scottish & Newcastle, said: “Tony and Stewart bring valuable international expertise at a time when the group continues to focus on the growth of its overseas business.”

RBS biggest backer of UK renewables

ROYAL Bank of Scotland was the biggest provider of cash to the UK renewable energy sector last year, lending more than double its nearest competitor, Lloyds, according to a report by Infrastructure Journal.

RBS lent about £230 million to wind farms and other alternative energy developers, while Lloyds paid out some £113m, the magazine said.

The figures will be released today to accompany the publication of RBS’s sustainability report, which is expected to re-ignite criticism from environmental groups over the bank’s support for companies taking part in controversial oil sands projects.