Meat packing giant Danish Crown has announced it will lay off 900 workers, closing its plants in the Jutland towns of Vojens and Nykøbing Mors, the Copenhagen post has reported.
Around another 150 employees will be let go from the company’s plant in Holsterbro, also in Jutland.
Bad combination “A bad combination of a poor pork production economy across Europe and the lack of environmental approvals from the Danish authorities meant that we had to make a quick decision to maintain the company’s strength,” said Kjeld Johannesen, Danish Crown’s chief executive.
Slower period Johannesen said the company had been operating at only about 80 percent capacity over the past few weeks. He said the pork industry was entering into a slower period, but said the severity of the downturn left the company no other alternative than to cut jobs.
Danish Crown is Europe’s largest meat packing company and the world’s second largest pig slaughterhouse. It is co-operatively owned by 13,500 Danish pig farmers and slaughters an average of 20 million pigs each year.