230 jobs at risk after supermarket contract is lost

230 jobs are at risk at two food processing plants in Hereford lost a major contract with Asda.

Cargill Meats Europe will stop producing its breaded and battered (B&B) poultry products for the supermarket group on June 1, which will mainly affect staff at its Yazor Road site.

The company, which employs about 2,000 people in Hereford, said it would look to redeploy staff.

In a statement Cargill said: “This extremely difficult situation follows the disappointing loss of the Asda B&B business during a competitive tendering process.

“In light of this, Cargill’s European chicken business has decided to further increase its focus on growing its primary fresh chicken business in line with its £35 million investment in fresh chicken over the past several years.”

Cargill’s European poultry business is spread over two sites in Hereford and the plants have been established for more than 50 years. Its Grandstand Road site processes about 1.6m chickens per week which it prepares either for further processing or packaged as fresh chicken products. The chicken that is to be further processed goes to its Yazor Road plant where it is treated with sauce and dressings, rotisserie chicken and breaded and battered chicken for retail and restaurants.

The company said its poultry processing operations in Wolverhampton and Newent, Gloucester are unaffected.