Wakefield plant to shut as retailer cites ongoing losses and lost contracts. Morrisons has announced it will close its Rathbones Bakery factory in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, putting around 115 staff at risk of redundancy. The 28,000 sq ft site – operated by Morrisons’ Myton Food Group manufacturing arm – has been loss-making despite a major late-2024 restructure, the company said. Morrisons blamed “even more challenging” trading conditions, the loss of a large third‑party contract and higher inflation and energy costs for eroding the plant’s margins.
A Morrisons spokesperson said the business had “no way back to break-even” after exhaustive turnaround efforts, and the firm has “taken the difficult decision to close the remaining facility”. The company added that it would seek to redeploy affected employees where possible – “fully committed… to identifying any other suitable roles available elsewhere in the Myton Group” – and insisted that its in‑store Market Street bakery counters would not be affected.
In recent days all 115 remaining bakery workers have been formally notified of the closure plans. Morrisons said it has opened a formal consultation with staff and is examining options for the Wakefield site, including sale or repurposing.
The announcement ends a year of turmoil for the factory. In November 2024 Morrisons initially planned to close Rathbones altogether after decades of losses, but reversed course following intensive talks with the Bakers’ Union. Under the 2025 agreement the bakery abandoned its mainstream bread lines and focused on specialty products.
About 270 of the original 378 employees accepted voluntary redundancy, leaving roughly 138 colleagues on site. Company forecasts had suggested this slimmed-down operation might break even by 2027, but management now admits those plans have unraveled.
Unions and politicians reacted angrily to the latest closure plan. Bakers’ union BFAWU general secretary Sarah Woolley accused Morrisons’ private-equity owners (Clayton, Dubilier & Rice, who bought the chain in 2021) of “asset stripping” the bakery and warned she would “not accept a de-facto fire and rehire approach” for remaining staff. MPs from Labour and other parties have also raised the alarm.
In November 2024 a House of Commons Early Day Motion lamented the threat to “400 loyal” Rathbones jobs and called on the government to provide “all necessary support to the workers involved” and to investigate the impact of private-equity takeovers in the groceries sector. The union says it will continue to press ministers to protect its members and to ensure any redundancies are handled fairly.
For now, Morrisons says its priority is to help displaced employees. The group will work to find any possible alternative roles within its manufacturing division, though it has given no guarantee all workers can be absorbed. The retailer emphasizes that retail bakery counters and ambient supplies from other sources will cover any shortfall in product supply.
No government department or regulator has intervened publicly in the matter to date. However, union officials and supporting MPs have urged ministers to step in — arguing that workers should not bear the brunt of corporate restructuring backed by private equity.
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