Vitacress plant

Salad supplier Vitacress has embarked on a major corporate restructure, merging its three UK business units - Vitacress Salads, VHB and Wight Salads - into a single entity.

The new business will be known as Vitacress and will be headed up by current group CEO Toby Brinsmead. It will be headquartered at Vitacress’ site in Chichester. The current Vitacress Salads head office, in Eastleigh, will close down.

Vitacress said it expected to make about 25 redundancies across various management functions as a result of the restructure. Six managers had already agreed to leave the company, including Vitacress Salads MD Mike Rushworth and VHB MD Nick Gibbons.

However, former Wight Salads MD Peter Moug will stay on, and will manage Vitacress’s tomatoes business unit.

In total, Vitacress employs about 2,000 staff in the UK, and the company said its growing, packing and distribution functions would not be affected by the changes.

Brinsmead said the new Vitacress would have a simpler structure that would bring it closer to its customers and give it an improved ability to invest. “We regret the redundancies we are planning to make and will do all we can to look after those people who are affected.”