Staff raise a glass as brewery leaves town

Alan Bunce • Published 22 Mar 2010 10:00 5 Comments

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THE biscuits have gone, the bulbs have gone and on Good Friday the last of Reading's three Bs will finally leave town.

Berkshire Brewery officially closes on Friday, April 2, when the last 142 workers bring to an end 225 years of brewing in the town.

But hardly any of the 362 people losing their jobs will be heading for the Jobcentre.

Instead, during the phased two-year closure of the Worton Grange site, bosses at Heineken laid on an outplacement programme, and feedback shows 96% of the 220 redundant staff who left last year were fixed up either with new jobs, have retrained, are starting their own businesses or taking early retirement.

A handful of staff took the option to transfer to other breweries in the group.

Performance and the staff safety record even improved during the closure period. There is even a special beer to commemorate the closure. By this week, the brewery had gone 585 days without anyone needing more than three days off for a work-related accident.

Brewery manager Tom Robinson said: "People on this site have been massively proud of what they have done and they have done it extremely well.

"This is the closure of a chapter but not with any bad feeling."

Like most of his staff, Tom has managed to get another job. He is moving to Australia to become general manager of northern area operations for Fosters Group in Brisbane, overseeing a team of 500.

Heineken spokesman David Jones said a number of engineers and security staff will remain on the 58-acre site while it is decommissioned.

Have your say. Post a comment on this article.

Mischievous
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Mar 24, 12:24
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The old home town looks the same as I get off the train. Where has all the industry gone, long time passing - gone to developers everyone.

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Mischievous
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Mar 24, 12:26
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I forgot - cheers to Berkshire Brewery, you will be remembered as the long shadow of development commeth in your stead.

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Devil
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May 10, 15:20
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It's all the Polish bringing their Polish beers here with them to Reading. Because most of the town is foriegn they do not drink the ales that English would so they don't sell much anymore making the brewery unviable.

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Nick
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Dec 23, 12:03
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This is great. Some very useful information there. I found these guys. They're great for web design http://www.ifxwebdesign.co.uk

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ex brewery worker
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Mar 9, 18:09
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@ devil you do talk rubbish we used to ditribute to the whole of the uk

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