A DERBY firm which produces ready meals has announced it is shedding up to 70 jobs.
S&A Foods is cutting the positions at its factory in Shaftesbury Street South, Normanton, which employs 500 people.
The company, which supplies chilled ready meals to supermarkets, including Asda, said that the move was part of a "restructure" of its business that would allow it to remain "competitive and sustainable in an increasingly challenging market".
S&A, which last year celebrated its 25th anniversary, said the redundancies would be phased over several months.
Managing director Des Kingsley said: "After a detailed review, we have taken the difficult decision to restructure the business in order to reduce costs and improve operational efficiency.
"We will do our utmost to support those people who will be affected by this announcement, including helping them to find alternative employment."
S&A is also proposing to introduce new shift patterns as part of the reorganisation of the business.
The firm said that this would be discussed as part of a detailed consultation process involving staff and their union representatives.
The job losses will be made in several areas of the business – but S&A said it anticipated that they would achieved through voluntary redundancies, rather than compulsory redundancies.
S&A Foods was founded by Perween Warsi in the kitchen of her Derby home.
Mrs Warsi, who came to the UK from her native India in the 1970s, started the business after being disappointed by the quality of a samosa she had bought from a supermarket.
She began making Indian finger food, which she supplied to local restaurants. She got her first big break when she won a contract to supply dishes to Asda.
The Derby factory began production in 1987 and initially employed 100 people. Today, the company has an annual turnover of £75 million.
