Kerry foods to close site in Flint, North Wales

The factory, known as one of Headland Foods' is due to close by the end of April 2011, making 318 employees redundant.

Headland has two factories - one in Flint and one in Grimsby, North Lincolnshire. The Flint site produces frozen own label ready meals for the multiples.

Kerry Foods, an international food manufacturer, acquired the Headland Foods' site less than three months ago, just before Christmas. A Consultation period beginning in November 2010 continued through the takeover, although failed to bring to life any alternatives to closure - high levels of competition and diminishing profit levels have resulted in no other choice.

The Flint site is due to begin closure in early April, scaling down production from then up until full closure by the end of April. Production of ready meals for the supermarkets is being moved to the more up-to-date factory in Grimsby, as this site has spare capacity.

Kerry has made an effort to relocate some of the redundancies to its other sites - some to the Headland Foods Grimsby site, whilst others to Kerry sites in the North West of England.

Whilst Kerry Foods already have a frozen ready meal factory in Northern Ireland, in a statement discussing the takeover they mention that the acquisition of the similar sites in England and Wales allows them to be able to better compete due to having a mainland site.

The frozen food market is no stranger to bad news - Pole Star Foods based in Leamington Spa and Okehampton has been in trouble, whilst Longbenton Foods has had to close the Northumberland Foods site on the North Sea coast and the site in Longbenton.