Danish Crown shuts China plant, lays off 112 employees

COPENHAGEN (Reuters) -Meat producer Danish Crown said on Thursday it had closed its factory in Pinghu in eastern China following a review and said the plant did not fit into its strategy.

Danish Crown has undergone significant restructuring in recent years, closing one of its major slaughterhouses in Denmark and announcing last October that it would cut around 500 white-collar jobs.

The farmer-owned company, one of the world's biggest pork exporters, opened its factory in Pinghu, near Shanghai in 2019 to expand its business in China.

"It has however never succeeded in generating the expected earnings, even though significant efforts were made during the period to rectify a poor start," the company said in a statement.

Danish Crown has closed the plant and laid off 112 employees, and has signed a letter of intent to sell the facility, it said.

(Reporting by Louise Breusch Rasmussen, editing by Anna Ringstrom and Terje Solsvik)