R&R Ice Cream is to close its Crossgates factory in Leeds at the end of the year.
The site, which was acquired by own-label and branded supplier R&R following its merger with the Treats Ice Cream business in 1998, employs 135 staff who will all be offered jobs at R&R’s site in Leeming Bar, also in Yorkshire.
The company said the fabric of the Crossgates buildings was now in need of considerable investment despite £23m being put into the site over the years. It added the area was now more residential in nature, which made it more difficult to manufacture without upsetting residents.
The site has been under review since April, and R&R said “all possible” alternatives to closure had been examined. “The elected consultative group has now confirmed it agrees with the company’s assessment that the proposed closure of the factory is the only viable financial option,” said a spokesman, adding that the next phase of talks would include possible ways of assisting employees to travel from Leeds to Leeming Bar.
The news comes the same week as the sale of R&R to private equity firm PAI Partners completed, and in which CEO James Lambert handed the reins to the company’s current Europe CEO Ibrahim Najafi. Lambert will remain chairman of the business, which he co-founded in 1985.
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