Danish Crown Job Losses as Decline in Pigs for Slaughter

DENMARK - A renewed decline in the supply of pigs for slaughter means there are no longer enough pigs to justify an evening shift for slaughtering pigs at Danish Crown’s slaughterhouse in Ringsted.
calendar icon 22 August 2016
clock icon 3 minute read

As a result, 20 permanent employees will be dismissed. In addition, about 100 employees will also be stopping as their fixed-term employment contracts come to an end.

"This is a very unfortunate situation. We saw a stabilisation in the supply of pigs for slaughter throughout 2015, but since the start of the year, there has been a fall of about 3 per cent compared to last year. Therefore, it’s now necessary to adapt capacity accordingly," said Per Laursen, Vice President, Production at Danish Crown Pork.

Over the next month, the number of slaughterings in Ringsted will be reduced from 46,000 to 34,000 pigs a week.

The adjustment primarily affects Ringsted because there are not enough pigs on Zealand to fill the slaughterhouse. Every week, Danish Crown transports more than 10,000 pigs across the Great Belt, incurring additional transport costs as a result.

"We are now returning to the lower number of slaughterings which was in the plan that was implemented in spring 2015. Back then, we closed two of the slaughter lines in Ringsted, but during summer last year, it proved to be too big a contraction, which is why we created an evening shift. This has been running really well for a year, but now there are unfortunately no longer enough pigs to maintain an evening shift for slaughterings in Ringsted," said Mr Laursen.

The 100 employees and more who work in the evening with deboning, packaging and production for Danish Crown’s customers in Asia will not be affected by the adjustment.

"Fortunately, Danish Crown’s products are enjoying strong demand worldwide. We therefore expect to be able to offer other work to many of the employees who are currently engaged in slaughtering in the evening," said Mr Laursen.

In addition to Ringsted, capacity is also being adjusted at Danish Crown’s biggest slaughterhouse in Horsens, where the number of slaughterings is being reduced from 102,000 to 98,000 pigs a week.

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