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Job cuts for West End Brewery as mainstream market struggles

The parent company of West End Brewery says that about a third of the full-time staff at the landmark Adelaide facility could lose their jobs.

Oct 03, 2018, updated Oct 03, 2018
Photo: Tony Lewis/InDaily

Photo: Tony Lewis/InDaily

In a statement today, Lion Beer said the brewery was reducing its shifts “which may result in 36 full-time roles being made redundant”.

The brewery employs more than 100 staff.

Lion said it had made the decision “in order to remain competitive in the marketplace against a backdrop of a range of cost pressures including freight, a reduction in volume, and the continued decline in the mainstream beer market”.

It was “proposing to redistribute production within our network, and reduce the number of shifts at the West End brewery”.

However, it said West End would continue to be brewed locally.

“West End will continue to play an important role in our network of nine breweries, after we invested significantly in 2013 to build a dedicated cider-making facility at the site”.

The company said impacted workers would have access to outplacement services, job transition or retirement planning, on top of redundancy packages.

“Our preference would always be to offer voluntary over compulsory redundancies in the first instance.”

The West End Brewery was established in Adelaide in 1859, originally in the city. It moved to the Southwark Brewery in Thebarton – its current location – in 1980.

Lion owns a range of food and beverage brands, including XXXX, Tooheys, Hahn, James Boag, Emu and Swan.

Opposition Leader Peter Malinauskas said the job losses were “incredibly unfortunate”.

He said the Government should be investing in retraining but it had cut such programs in its recent budget.

more to come

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