South Gloucestershire | Archive | 2005 | December | 9
From the archive, first published Friday 9th Dec 2005.
A SLUMP in the sale of sausage rolls to schools has contributed to a bleak Christmas for more than 50 workers at a factory in Yate whose company faces £20million of debt.
Employees of Canterbury Foods, which owns a factory on the Beeches Industrial Estate on Stover Road, do not know if they will keep their jobs after the firm experienced a series of financial hits this year.
The company is now discussing a drastic cost cutting scheme to bring its books out of the red.
The food manufacturers, which produces sausages, burgers and pastries from the Yate factory, has been hit by falling sales in its meats and pastry businesses and it is now feared that redundancies will be made.
In particular, the Yate factory, which sells meat and pastry to wholesalers who then supply schools with the produce, could be in the firing line.
It is rumoured that campaigns to produce healthier foods for school, such as the one led by celebrity chef Jamie Oliver in his Channel 4 show Jamie's School Dinners, has had a knock on effect on the business.
It was announced this week that bosses are now contemplating selling some of the company's factories.
In a company document released on Tuesday a spokesman for the firm said that the pastry side of the business had suffered as Canterbury Foods "had not experienced the traditional uplift with the return to schools in sausage roll sales."
He also attributed some of the company's problems to the Sudan 1 scare - an illegal food dye which has been linked to causing cancer - at the beginning of the year. Hundreds of products had to be recalled from supermarket shelves after it was discovered that a batch of the dye had been distributed to food manufacturers across the UK.
Despite an optimistic forecast for Christmas sales, Canterbury Foods has been forced to put many of its business up for sale after an accumulation of external factors plunged the company into the red.
Now the firm has announced that the best chance of survival is to get rid of as many of its businesses as possible and strike a new deal with the bank over its debts.
The company has not yet revealed which of its businesses will be sold but a spokesman confirmed that it would be making an announcement shortly.
He said: "The company is currently in discussions with third parties which may lead to the sale of one or more of its businesses."
Staff at the Beeches factory told the Gazette they were unable to comment.
© Newsquest Media Group 2008