News

Up to 95 Wincanton employees face redundancy following grocery group Jenks Sales Brokers' move into administration - just months after it opened a new warehouse in Milton Keynes. PriceWaterhouseCoopers was appointed as administrator on 18 May and all 110 Jenks employees at the group's 320,000ft2 warehouse and head office have been made redundant.

In addition, Wincanton has entered a consultation with 95 employees. The logistics firm signed an agreement with Jenks in November 2008 to manage its transportation and warehousing.

Wincanton says the majority of staff affected are warehouse operatives. A spokesman states: "This may result in a redundancy situation for some or all of our employees at the Milton Keynes site. Should this redundancy situation arise, Wincanton will use every effort to redeploy as many as possible across its network."

The Milton Keynes site became fully operational in January, with Wincanton running a dedicated 20-strong fleet for Jenks.

A PriceWaterhouseCoopers spokeswoman says: "Jenks' food market was beginning to slow down last year and volumes dropped greatly this year. It also suffered because of foreign exchange fluctuations." She confirms the  group will wind down and not be sold.