Did you spill my pint? Bulmers factory workers to meet tomorrow

[allthingspol]

that's 121 more families struggling, awful news.

[well_known_grouse]

that's 121 more families struggling, awful news.

but not for these blokes..

Sparkling pay package for new C&C bosses - Irish, Business - Independent.ie

[shutuplaura]

Bulmers has been struggling for ages for reasons mentioned by other posters. Workers in the plant have been expecting the worst since christmas at least and possibly last autumn when it became obvious the sales were not matching previous summers.

Bad news because its a traditional irish owned industry, something we should be doing a lot better. For Clonmel its also a huge disappointment. Clonmel has to be one of the most neglected large towns in the country.

[stanley]

That increased production capacity, combined with the failure of the anticipated growth to materialise, may well be a valid reason for the company to lay off staff. They're also under pricing pressure in the UK, their main market (for Magners). So it may not be quite the cynical exercise some poster suspect (but I could be wrong).

Maurice Pratt had already put his hands up and resigned. He turned the company into a one-trick pony, gambling everything on the early success and rapid growth of Magners in the UK market. When growth stalled and the competition responded, the wheels came off and Pratt departed - taking responsibility for the strategic mistakes.

Pratt tried to position Magners pricewise as a premium beer but duty on cider in UK is about 10% of beer and with the savings Pratt spent bigtime on promotion and advertising.
As soon as S&N figured out what he was at (a week) they responded based on price and blew Magners out of the water.
No doubt though exec salaries/bonus was based on one year's good results and a lot of ad agencies disappointed Pratt has gone.
Example, Asda sell a 2ltr own brand of Cider (4.2%) for £1-20, game over.