Pizza-maker Paramount Foods falls into administration

FRESH and frozen pizza manufacturer Paramount Foods, which employs around 450 people at sites in Salford and Deeside, has been placed into administration after losing a key contract from supermarket group Morrisons.

Sarah Bell and David Whitehouse from the Manchester office of insolvency firm Duff & Phelps have been appointed to Paramount, which had annual sales of £32.5m in 2011.

The loss-making business, which also supplies Sainsbury’s, was spun-out of Dutch food manufacturing group Vion just last month.

The contract to supply Yorkshire-based Morrisons accounted for around 40% of turnover, Mr Whitehouse said.

He told TheBusinessDesk.com: “We will be reviewing the business over the weekend and looking at whether there is an opportunity to sell it.”

Paramount has more than 130 staff at Salford and 300 at Deeside. The pizza bases are made at the Salford site and the manufacturing process is completed in Deeside with finished goods stored at a separate facility on this site.