'No' to Terry's factory switch

HOPES that Terry's could still have a future in York were today dealt a hammer blow - despite more than 2,000 people backing our campaign to save the famous factory.

Richard Johnson, vice president of corporate affairs at the firm's US owners Kraft Foods, said switching the chocolate operation to a new, smaller plant in the city was "unviable".

Global spokesman Mr Johnson, speaking from Kraft's Chicago headquarters, denied the food giant was snubbing readers by not formally replying to our open letter published 17 days ago calling for Terry's to stay in York in some form.

We urged Kraft to rethink and switch to a new purpose-built plant in York after selling its historic Bishopthorpe Road base - which we said made "plain, good business sense".

But today Mr Johnson said: "We have looked at the possibility of smaller sites and we have concluded that it's not viable."

He said the bombshell decision to sever Terry's historic York links and move production abroad, putting 316 jobs at risk, had not been taken lightly.

Asked why we had not even received acknowledgement of the letter sent to chief executive Roger Deromedi and printed on the front page of the Evening Press on April 20, Mr Johnson said Mr Deromedi had been off work sick for several weeks.

He was due back soon, but has had no opportunity to see editor Kevin Booth's heartfelt plea to keep Terry's in York.

However, Mr Johnson said a standard response to our letter would not be appropriate.

He said: "We are not ignoring the issue and we are taking it very seriously. We fully understand the difficult situation in York.

"Our team in the UK had a long meeting with the Evening Press to talk through our decision. I'm not sure what else would be expected.

"It's much better to have a meeting and ongoing dialogue rather than summarise everything in two or three paragraphs. That won't get to the heart of the issues raised by your letter." He said meetings had been held between York bosses and representatives from the Evening Press, unions and politicians in the wake of the shock closure decision, which has prompted calls for a boycott of Terry's and Kraft goods from some angry readers.

"We are quite happy to talk about these issues in more detail, but I'm not sure a standard response to your letter is going to do the trick. The plant is not due to close until the back end of next year. There's still plenty of time to discuss the future with everyone concerned."

Union representatives were today meeting Kraft chiefs to discuss the reasons for closure, when Kraft will disclose commercially sensitive information to the unions.

John Kirk, of the GMB union, commenting on Mr Johnson's views, said: "We've heard this message from the start when they made the closure announcement.

"This man has had the chance to look at figures, I've not. We are getting the figures today and next week and we will be in a better position after that."

Evening Press editor Kevin Booth said today: "We don't accept this as the end of it. The fight goes on."

Updated: 10:30 Thursday, May 06, 2004