McBride plans to cut jobs in Yorkshire

McBride posted a 42 per cent drop in annual profit, after its performance was hit by higher raw material costs.

The company said the short-term outlook remained tough.

The group, which supplies companies such as Tesco and Carrefour with goods ranging from dishwasher tablets to deodorant, said it made an operating profit before one-off items of £29m in the year ended June 30, in line with analysts’ expectations.

“Although a weak consumer environment and raw material inflation will continue to present a challenge in the short term, we remain focused on growing shareholder value through the rigorous execution of the ‘Refresh’ strategy,” it said, referring to its cost-cutting programme.

The full-year dividend was kept at 6.8p a share.

In a statement, the company said: “In line with the objectives of Project Refresh to improve competitiveness and reduce our cost base, the UK division has entered into a consultation process which might be expected to lead to 300 redundancies with the closure of the Burnley household liquids factory and production transferred to other manufacturing sites. In addition, following comprehensive cost saving reviews across all UK sites, a further 40 staff including operational staff at the Bradford site, and administrative and personnel staff at divisional headquarters, will be leaving the business.”