Manchester firm to close factory with loss of 160 jobs
Manchester based firm The Authentic Food Co is to close its Irish factory with the loss of more than 160 jobs.
The company has been granted permission by the Irish High Court to appoint joint provisional liquidators at the Dundalk-based TAFC Manufacturing Ireland.
Since the factory was founded in 2014, it had only reported one profitable year.
It is projected to make a loss in the current financial year of £2.4m and owes its parent company £3m.
A spokesperson for The Authentic Food Co. confirmed that the Dundalk plant is to close but added the company’s two other plants in Sharston and Stockport are not affected.
The Authentic Food Co acquired the business and assets from Kraft Heinz in 2015.
Nik Basran, the managing director of The Authentic Food Co, said: “We have faced some serious business challenges in recent months that have been specific to this site.
“While we have worked tirelessly to meet those challenges head-on and carried out a comprehensive review of the business to try to find a way to make it profitable over the long term, unfortunately, that has not been possible.
“We have therefore had no option other than to close the Dundalk facility.”
Ken Fennell and James Anderson of Deloitte have been appointed joint provisional liquidators ahead of a court hearing next month.
The Unite union has today written to the Republic’s Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation, Heather Humphreys, expressing serious concerns at the decision.
Unite’s senior officer in the Republic, Brendan Ogle, said that the decision was a classic case of what he termed ‘shoddy corporate practice’.
He warned that Unite would not tolerate a situation whereby a highly profitable UK company essentially ditched an Irish subsidiary, leaving workers and the Irish taxpayer to pick up the bill.
He said: “Last year, the Authentic Food Company reported record sales, yet now they have decided to ditch their Dundalk plant leaving around 170 workers high and dry, and potentially leaving the Irish taxpayer to foot the bill for redundancy payments.
“Had the company been interested in saving the Dundalk plant they would have engaged with the workforce and their union. Indeed, Unite wrote to them on three occasions in the past number of weeks, and even offered to travel from Ireland to Manchester to work out ways to chart a way forward for the plant.”
