Nestle to Cut Nearly 300 Jobs at U.K. Plants, Move Production to Poland

Swiss confectionery group Nestle SA (NESN.EB) plans to move some production from its U.K. factories to a plant in Poland, putting up to 298 jobs at risk.

Nestle said it would make the changes this year and in 2018 at four U.K. sites. It said it hopes to achieve the job cuts through voluntary redundancies.

The company is changing shift patterns at each factory and moving production of Blue Riband chocolate wafers to a Nestle factory in Poland to improve efficiency, it said.

The GMB and Unite labor unions claimed the cuts were linked to the U.K.'s decision to leave the European Union, though a Nestle spokeswoman denied that.

A GMB spokesman said: "The government needs to step in before it's too late and reassure millions of workers across the country this is not just the tip of the Brexit iceberg."

The Nestle spokeswoman said: "The changes would be necessary irrespective of the U.K.'s vote to leave the EU."

-Write to Philip Waller at philip.waller@wsj.com

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April 25, 2017 09:21 ET (13:21 GMT)