Domino’s Pizza Enterprises Limited CEO Don Meij has announced plans to open 30 to 40 new stores in Australia over the next six months. Combined with plans to employ more team members across its 474 existing stores in Australia, the publicly-listed pizza chain expects to create more than 2,500 employment opportunities in the next four months. Mr Meij said the company had kicked off the 2011/12 financial year with solid same store sales growth and its stores are requiring more drivers and pizza makers... ...Read more »

Australia’s supermarket industry faces losing up to 40,000 jobs if the grocery war continues, according to Ritchies CEO Fred Harrison. “Continued hacking away at prices by Coles to gain a market advantage is threatening the jobs of thousands of workers – particularly young people and women, who make up the bulk of the people in the sector,” he said. Harrison said 65% of the cost of operating a supermarket was wages – and staff would be the first area to cut to maintain profitability. “You... ...Read more »

Jobs are under threat at the Spanish arm of US food giant Sara Lee as the company reviews its bakery operations in the country.Sara Lee has been looking at different ways to distribute its bread throughout Spain and reports in the country have claimed the company could outsource distribution to local logistics firms. The company said on Friday (9 July) that it has been “testing different alternatives” to deliver products through local distributors. Sara Lee told just-food it had yet to... ...Read more »

Cadbury’s Australian employees are cautious after the takeover by US manufacturing giant, Kraft, although there are high hopes that job cuts will not eventuate. Last night, the confectioner’s shareholders voted in favour of the A$21 billion takeover, which has caused fear amongst workers in Cadbury factories worldwide. The Manufacturing Workers Union awaits news from Kraft, with the manufacturer set to contact employees at the two sites at Claremont in southern Tasmania and Ringwood... ...Read more »

As UK consumers throw their arms up in despair at Kraft’s takeover of a British icon, we take a look at the impact of the $21 billion deal in Australia… Market power Kraft and Cadbury are both among the top 15 food grocery suppliers in the country with a combined portfolio of brands that will have a significant portion of the confectionery, biscuit, processed cheese and spreads sectors. A limited amount of overlap, however, has meant that Australia’s competition watchdog has given... ...Read more »

A decision by New South Wales Treasurer Eric Roozendaal to save 40 western Sydney food manufacturing jobs has been applauded by the Australian Food and Grocery Council (AFGC). The NSW Government announced the Quality Ingredients jobs would be saved following an industry assistance package which helped the 40 workers to be re-employed with new owners of the ingredients company New Food Coatings. AFGC Chief Executive Kate Carnell thanked Minister Roozendaal for his support to help relocate the workers... ...Read more »

National Foods has announced 57 redundancies in the wake of a review of operations at their Berri juice factory in South Australia. The review followed a vandalism attack last month. Vandals last month caused a temporary closure of the Riverland plant and left a damage bill of around $500,000. And now almost half the workforce will depart after the company decided to not resume production of long-life juice. Corporate Affairs Manager Geoff Lynch told the ABC that the redundancies were spread across... ...Read more »

A rise in the number of home cooked meals has helped cushion the impact of the downturn on supermarkets and manufacturers and is leading to a replenishment of staff at a number of prominent manufacturing sites in Victoria. Around 60 positions have been added at the Uncle Tobys factory near Wodonga, 50 at each of the Bega and Mrs Crocket’s factories and a number at Fonterra, the state secretary of the National Union of Workers, Anthony Thow, told The Age. Mr Thow believes the jobs rebound in... ...Read more »

Michael Luscombe, CEO of retailer Woolworths, today told the American Chamber of Commerce in Australia of his bullish outlook for his company and the Australian economy. Woolworths, which announced an expansion of their Thomas Dux business yesterday, have maintained guidance for high single digit sales growth in the current financial year as their supermarkets get a boost from the downturn. “We haven’t taken the opportunity to change our guidance because we don’t have to,”... ...Read more »

Lower interest rates and the first economic stimulus package have helped shore up jobs in the retail industry, according to an analysis of new ABS jobs data, the Australian National Retailers Association said today. ANRA, which represents a number of Australia’s largest retail organisations including supermarket chains Coles, Woolworths and Franklins, reported that growth in the number of retail job losses had begun to subside. “The ABS Labour Force figures for the February quarter show... ...Read more »