Kerry Group to Close Welsh Frozen Food Factory
Kerry Group, the Irish and international food ingredients and consumer foods manufacturer, is to close its own label frozen foods factory at Flint in Wales with the loss of 318 jobs. The site is part of Headland Foods, which makes two million ready meals a week between its factories in Flint and Grimsby, Lincolnshire.
Headland Foods announced last November that it was starting a consultation period with staff regarding the future of the Flint factory. The business was subsequently acquired by Kerry Group for an undisclosed amount with the transaction being completed in January 2011.
The Flint site will commence scaling down production in mid-April with the closure scheduled to take place at the end of April. According to Kerry, it is making every effort to help workers find other jobs, including possible redeployment at Headland Foods’ other factory in Grimsby, and Kerry Group plants at Hyde, near Manchester, and Burton-on-Trent.
Two other food companies, one in frozen foods and the other in chilled foods, are reported to have shown an interest in possibly taking over the Flint plant.
