Ready-made meal giant Lite n’ Easy sacks scores of staff, closes two major call centres

Ready-made meal giant Lite n’ Easy has sacked or redeployed more than 60 staff after closing two major call centres in Melbourne and Brisbane.

Pre-made meal giant Lite n’ Easy has sacked or redeployed dozens of staff after the closure of two call centres in Melbourne and Brisbane.

It comes as the company aims to centralise its various contact centres with a new “purpose-built” centre in Melbourne’s CBD.

Chief executive Nathan Hayman told News Corp that a total of 64 staff had been fired or offered redeployment opportunities.

“Following a recent business review, we’ve consolidated our five state-based contact centres into three, supported by a new, purpose-built customer contact centre in Melbourne’s CBD,” he said.

Lite n' Easy has consolidated its contact centres.

“This change significantly improves operational efficiency and service for our customers, but unfortunately means the closure of our Brisbane and Carrum Downs contact centres, with 64 contact centre team members, and some administration team members offered redeployment opportunities and/or redundancies.”

Lite n' Easy chief executive Nathan Hayman.

The Brisbane contact centre was located at the company’s head office and main manufacturing facility in Banyo.

Banyo’s manufacturing facilities continue to operate as normal.

Mr Hayman insisted Lite n’ Easy had “no plans to sell” and remained a proudly privately owned Australian business.

“These changes also allow us to repurpose these facilities for future production growth, keeping Lite n’ Easy well-positioned to deliver on our mission of making it easy for Australians to eat well and enjoy better health,” he said.

Assembly team members working in the Lite n' Easy main assembly hall in Banyo. Picture: Liam Kidston.

The Brisbane-based company was launched in Queensland in 1986 by Graham Mitchell who still owns the business, operating under the Mitchell’s Quality Foods umbrella.

Mr Hayman told News Corp last year the company expected to rake in $500m in revenue for the 2025 financial year, as the business focused on broadening its offerings beyond weight loss to appeal to a wider customer base seeking health-focused convenience.

Despite tougher economic conditions, the company continues to grow as it adds more products to its line-up to cater for time-poor households in an ultra competitive sector, he said.

The Brisbane centre was located at the company’s head office and main manufacturing facility in Banyo. Picture: Google

“In the last 12 months we’ve seen continued growth in the business. We are up 28 per cent on revenue on 2020 and we’ve achieved single digit growth year-on-year,” he said at the time.

“We achieved $493m in revenue in the 2024 financial year and I’m sure we’ll crack the $500m revenue mark for the first time in 2025.”

According to its financial statement lodged with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission in 2022-23 the company turned over $438m and the year before $418m.

In FY23 it made a $5.9m profit and the year before $14.47m.

It comes after founder Mr Mitchell made headlines in 2023 after he sold his Canary Island plantation home for $1.85m.

The 6.16 hectare holding has a two-bedroom, one-bathroom cottage and a one-bedroom studio.

It was marketed as the largest advanced Canary Island Date Palm tree plantation on the east coast of Australia.

Originally published as Ready-made meal giant Lite n’ Easy sacks scores of staff, closes two major call centres