A project to streamline production to boost profit and productivity launched by Atria has led the company to conclude that, to reduce costs and aid efficiency, a restructure of its Jyväskylä factory is necessary.
Atria wants to alleviate the impact of European price pressure on its business and one way of mitigating this impact is to centralise pork production at its Nurmo plant. This factory has already secured a coveted license to export pork to China and the business said earlier this year that it expected to surpass the 3,000 tonnes of pork it had earlier hoped to export to Asia’s largest economy in 2017.
Atria’s Nurmo plant has also seen a €36m investment on the latest robotics technology and advanced traceability systems. Blessed with all the new equipment, that should save the business around €8m per year, it is little wonder Atria wants to centralise pork-processing work to optimise savings.
Work to start in 2018
The Jyväskylä and Nurmo plants are less than two hundred kilometres apart and concentrating all pig-cutting operations here should save Atria at least €1.2m per year.
Talks have already been launched with the staff set to be affected by the processing adjustment measures. Centralising production in Nurmo will mean the Jyväskylä factory sees what Atria called a “25 man-years” reduction although it is not clear what the breakdown of this reduction will be.
Nurmo will begin to absorb the increased flow of raw materials in June 2018.
Earlier this year, Atria posted pre-tax profit of €9.1m for the six months up to 30 June 2017, rising from €4.5m at the same point a year earlier.