A MAJOR Welsh factory is set to close later this year due to rising costs and the Covid-19 pandemic.
Avara Foods announced their plans to close their Abergavenny site in Autumn, leaving roughly 400 jobs at risk.
They employ approximately 7,000 staff across the UK. The Abergavenny site is a ‘cut and pack’ which mainly prepares a range of fresh turkey products for retail customers.
Avara Foods supplies supermarkets and restaurants with chicken and turkey meat.
In the following days, they will begin a collective consultation process with employees who are affected by the proposal.
Avara claimed the decision had been a “difficult” one, and had “not been taken lightly and in no way reflects on the hard-working colleagues”.
An Avara spokesperson said: “To maintain a competitive customer offer, Avara has started to reengineer its turkey business to operate a more efficient operational footprint focused on fewer, better invested facilities.
“Over the past six months the company has looked in depth at a range of options to enable its wider business to compete effectively in the market in the future. These included different potential uses for the Abergavenny site. Regretfully, this process identified that volumes could be processed more efficiently in other operations and with lower capital investment. This has resulted in the proposal to close the Abergavenny site.”
Welsh Conservative Shadow Minister for Finance, Peter Fox MS, commented: “It is worrying news to read this morning that the Avara Foods plant at Abergavenny in Monmouthshire is closing one of their factories. The potential job losses will have a considerable impact on the local economy and the lives of the workers and their families.
“I feel for the workers who are living in limbo, waiting for news about whether their jobs are safe. This is another huge blow for the area, with Tillery foods entering administration last week, I can only hope that this is not a sign of future job losses in the area.
“In light of this distressing news, I have submitted a topical question in the Senedd to ensure Labour Ministers outline what urgent action is being taken to support those impacted.”
