Faced with declining demand for pork and the challenges of African swine fever, Danish Crown a major multinational pork producer has announced the intended closure of the Ringsted Packing Plant, currently employing 1,200.
Jais Valeur, Group CEO stated, “It is a heavy decision to close the abattoir in Ringsted but is a necessary measure in our efforts to develop Danish Crown as a modern food company.” He added, “In making these changes we are doing all we can to improve efficiency at the abattoirs and to sell many more processed products to our key European customers.”
The production capacity at Ringsted will be transferred to other plants in Denmark. It is intended to offer positions at these facilities to displaced employees. Savings from closing the Ringsted plant will be applied to improve efficiency at four other facilities, creating 300 new positions over three years.
Since 2021, Danish Crown has followed a strategy of providing further-processed pork items and has invested in production capacity in other markets including the U.K.
The decision to rationalize production and to concentrate on higher-value items parallels the recent decisions by Tyson Foods in the U.S. and Olymel in Canada to close obsolete or unprofitable plants and to consolidate production capacity.