Vion: Offers for meat plant rejected
Vion UK chairman Peter Barr said: “As we announced last week, the company received two offers for the Hall’s of Broxburn site prior to Friday’s deadline.”
Barr’s statement: “Regrettably, having reviewed both offers over the weekend we have been forced to conclude that neither of these proposals constitutes a viable and sustainable alternative to the proposed closure of the plant.
In neither instance were we assured that either offer provided a guarantee of ongoing employment for the workforce, in spite of the fact that Vion was prepared to offer substantial financial assistance to support the acquisition. This is a very sad day for the company but, unfortunately, the plant continues to suffer unsustainable losses of £79,000 a day. Consequently, it is with great regret that we can confirm that it is our intention to proceed with plans for a phased closure of the plant.
As previously outlined, this will mean that some areas will cease production later this month with full closure expected to take place by February 2013. We have already had detailed discussions with our employees and their union representatives to brief them fully on details of the enhanced redundancy terms on offer to them and to outline our plans to support them in the coming months.”
