McVitie’s workers leave for last time as plant closes despite owners’ £220m profits

The first Scottish factory to bear Robert McVitie’s name was opened in Edinburgh in 1830.

The last halted production on Wednesday after the multinational owners moved production of its famous biscuits to other sites despite a desperate fight to save the jobs and the neighbourhood they sustain.

Standing alone in the vast but empty staff car park at the plant in Tollcross, Glasgow, worker David Burton said he feels like he has been thrown on the scrapheap at just 26.

On Wednesday, production officially stopped at the plant that has been a landmark fixture in the city’s East End for nearly 100 years. A few will be needed for maintenance but most of the 500 workers will not be back.

Burton, a dad of one, lives just a few miles along the road in Bellshill and has been employed at McVitie’s since he was 18. He is being made redundant and is one of the skeleton crew that will remain for another few weeks as the factory is dismantled around them and equipment is prepared to be transported elsewhere.

He will clock on for the last time at the end of December and has no idea what he will do then. He believes he and his colleagues have been cast aside by the company at the cruellest of times in a cost of living crisis: “There are people whose families have been at McVitie’s for generations and now their future has been taken away from them. I doubt the prime minister knows how that feels.

“This is a Scottish factory and a brand that was invented in Scotland and it should not have been allowed to just disappear like this.”

The factory first opened in 1925, as part of the Macfarlane and Lang’s Victoria Biscuit Works, and made famous brands like Hobnobs and Rich Tea Biscuits.

Pladis, the global company that owns the Tollcross site, made almost £220m profits last year but said the decision made in May 2021 to shut it ​was taken in order to address “excess capacity” and protect the “long-term sustainability” of ​the business. It has been reported that Pladis plans to expand its plant in Carlisle.

An action group, jointly chaired by Scotland’s then business minister Jamie Hepburn and Glasgow City Council leader Susan Aitken, tabled a rescue plan to try and plot a sustainable future for the plant but the proposals were dismissed by Pladis. A petition signed by almost 80,000 people also failed to halt the closure plans.

As some of the remaining workers left their shifts on Thursday, they expressed anger and sadness at the closure and the impact it will have on the community. It has been estimated the shutting of the business and the knock-on impact on suppliers will cost the Scottish economy around £50m.

Iris Miller, 65, a cleaner, has been employed there for the past 21 years. She said her husband, son and daughter had all worked at McVitie’s at some point down the years.

Miller said she believed Pladis – a subsidiary of Turkish conglomerate Yıldız Holding – never had any intention of saving the site and instead only wanted the globally successful brands it is associated with. “They just wanted an already famous name and couldn’t care less about the workers in Scotland,” Miller said. “It is high time we stopped selling businesses like this to foreign owners.

“I am due to retire fairly soon but I hoped to stay on in my job for a few more years to help make ends meet during this cost of living emergency but now I will be out the door for good in a few week’s time. I’m gutted.”

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On Thursday, a trio of men with more than 100 years of service between them said emotional goodbyes at the factory gates. Two were clutching mementos including historic photographs of the site from the 1920s.

John Smith, a risk assessor, had been at McVitie’s for 42 years and lives just a mile away in Dennistoun. He said: “We have known each other all our working lives and this is a very sad day not just for the workers but the whole community. However, we all remain proud to have been at such a once-great place for such a long time.”

And Pat McHugh, 63, a hygiene worker there for the past six years, said the closure would bring the curtain down on his working days.

He said: “The past 18 months have been sheer hell, knowing that every day we were just toiling towards the end. The galling thing is that when we worked during the Covid pandemic we were hailed as key workers by the company, then they left us out to dry. It is sickening.”

The McVitie’s presence in Scotland goes back to the original Scottish biscuit maker, McVitie & Price Ltd, which was established in 1830 in Edinburgh.

In June, workers at the Tollcross site held a protest outside the Scottish Parliament as part of efforts to save the estimated 472 jobs put at risk but its closure was always on the cards.

The company has drawn up plans to transfer products to Pladis sites in England. Hobnobs and Digestives lines will go from Tollcross to Manchester, while other lines will be moved to Wigston, in Leicestershire, and Carlisle, in Cumbria.

Murat Ulker, chairman of Pladis and the richest man in Turkey, is believed to be worth around £4.3 billion. The maker of McVitie’s, Jacob’s, Carr’s and Go Ahead reported sales of £2bn last year and the group’s operating profit rose by 20% to £217.6 million.

It has been reported that Pladis received nearly £900,000 of taxpayer-funded grants to support local jobs over the years.

Glasgow MSP Paul Sweeney, who was involved in the campaign to protect jobs, said that rescue attempts made by the Scottish Government were valiant but had come too late.

“There had been talk that production was being wound down for years so perhaps if this had been tackled sooner then a situation like this could have been avoided,” he said. “However, despite proposals being put forward, including assistance to build a new factory nearby, at the end of the day it was clear that the company had adopted a scorched earth approach and would not change its course.”

He added: “It doesn’t sit well with me that governments are having to go cap in hand to overseas company owners and beg them not to ruin our communities. The rules around these ownerships need to be tightened.”

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The GMB union represents the majority of the Tollcross workforce. Organiser Robert Deavy said he believed Pladis were never interested in a rescue package. He said discussions over severance payments were ongoing. “We asked the owners to tell us what they wanted and told them that we would get there,” he said. “But they continually moved the goalposts and their faceless directors never met once with the unions.

“And now, even with the shutters coming down, they are trying to cut-and-run on the cheap, with our members fighting to ensure this year’s pay rise is factored into their redundancy entitlements.

“It’s entirely consistent with the actions of an employer that told staff they were key workers during the first wave of Covid, ramped up production and profits, and then rewarded them with closure instead of a future for their efforts.

“The real-world consequences of this are the loss of hundreds of jobs and one of the few sources of prosperity in Glasgow’s East End, which in the current cost of living crisis will be almost impossible to replicate.

“Let’s be clear, Pladis leave Tollcross with no credibility whatsoever.”

Just around the corner from the McVitie’s factory, shops and cafes on the bustling Tollcross Road are bracing for a downturn in business. Some said the closure would be a hammer blow to the area.

Stephen Ferguson, barber at The Fading Ape salon, said his shop wouldn’t just lose customers but long-time friends. “We have noticed a drop in the number of people coming into the shop already,” he said. “If you live in this area then you will almost certainly know someone who works at McVitie’s.

“It is almost unreal that a factory that size will now just disappear and with it will go all the workers, a lot of whom have been the lifeblood of this community for a century.”

Pladis still defends the closure, saying: “We undertook a formal consultation process and have engaged with employees, their representatives and government stakeholders throughout. The proposal to close the factory was taken in order to address excess capacity and protect the long-term sustainability of our business.”

The Scottish Government said: “We responded immediately to Pladis’s announcement in May 2021 by setting up the Pladis Action Group, co-chaired by the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Economy, which invested significant time and effort to develop credible proposals for Pladis to retain its presence in Scotland.

“Ultimately, the decision to close its Tollcross site was one for Pladis. Throughout this process, the company has indicated a responsibility and willingness to discuss potential legacy options for the site and alongside Scottish Enterprise and other public sector partners, the Scottish Government continues to pursue an outcome that secures future opportunities for the local area.

“Our priority has always been the workforce and securing the best possible outcome for them.”