So, as some of you may know from reading the Norman Tebitt thread, or have seen reported in the national media, Diageo last week announced to 700 staff at their Kilmarnock packaging site that the factory is closing. For those of you who don't know, this is where I work.
Diageo are the worlds biggest drinks company owning such brands as Smirnoff, Gordons, Guinness, Jose Cuervo Tequila, Blossom Hill, J&B and many many more including the worlds number one Scotch whisky brand, Johnnie Walker.
John Walker was born in Kilmarnock and started blending, bottling and selling his whisky here in 1820. Although it is not a big brand in the UK, anywhere else in world if you mention Kilmarnock, people know it through it's links to Johnnie Walker. The decision to close the factory was made under a veil of worldwide recession when in fact this plant is the most profitable out of three packaging sites in Scotland and the company made in excess of £1.6 billion in the 6 months to December 08 in profit.
The decision is particularly hard to take since they have also announced plans to build an extra bottling hall at another site in Scotland which they propose could provide 400 new jobs. This site is not commutable from Kilmarnock.
I am very lucky in that I know my job is safe for at least 3 years as I would be transferred to the Glasgow site when this one shuts but I am in a very unique position. I accepted this news with a very heavy heart and have had to watch as my colleagues accepted there livelihood was being snatched away.
However. A fight back has started. The political parties have united and are calling themselves the Johnnie Walker party. The council have organised a protest march and rally. The national and international media are outraged. Celebrities have waded in. Diageo are beginning to get unsettled and announced yesterday they would consider reversing this decision.
There is a very good chance this is an unwinnable fight and everyone here is scared to harbour false hope however when I was walking into work this morning it was amazing to see a poster in every window I passed. An online petition has started, please please sign it. Diageo are monitoring all that is happening and they are reading comments so every little helps. They tried to close the Guinness brewery in Dublin and public opinion forced a change of heart so maybe, just maybe, the same is possible here. Sorry for the long post.
http://www.keepjohnniewalkerinkilmarnock.com/http://www.savejohnniewalker.org/?id=homehttp://www.bebo.com/Profile.jsp?MemberId=9561469543http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=1 ... 148&ref=nf The petition can be found here.
http://www.gopetition.co.uk/petitions/s ... /sign.html News stories can be found on the BBC website as well as every Scottish broadsheets website such as the Glasgow Herald, The Scotsman and I believe the Guardian as well.
As one commentator said, Diageo are killing the goose which laid the golden egg.