Dawn’s €15m merger to cost jobs

DAWN Meats announced yesterday a merger of two plants in the west of Ireland in a €15 million investment that will result in the loss of 80 jobs.

The decision will result in the amalgamation of its sites at Ballaghaderreen and Ballyhaunis, 25km apart, into one operation.

Dawn said this single operation will be based at Ballyhaunis, where the redeveloped plant will be at the leading edge in terms of scale, efficiency, food technology and environmental standards.

It will use the best modern beef and lamb processing equipment available.

The plants at Ballyhaunis and Ballaghaderreen employ in the region of 430 permanent and temporary workers. After the amalgamation, it is envisaged 350 jobs will be retained.

The company said it intends to make available an outplacement service to help employees who are being made redundant to source other employment.

Dawn’s cattle and sheep procurement for the region will be centralised in Ballyhaunis, which will have the capacity to process 120,000 cattle and 500,000 sheep.

The current market requirement for steers, heifers, bulls, cows, lambs and ewes will also be serviced from Ballyhaunis.

Dawn said the amalgamation is in line with the findings of a number of studies over the past 20 years which recommended rationalisation of the sector.

It pointed out that the majority of abattoirs in Ireland operate at no more than 50% capacity for most of the year, with short-time working a feature of the industry.

Established in Waterford in 1980, the Dawn Group is one of Europe’s largest food processing companies. It forms part of the Queally Group, Ireland’s largest privately owned agri-businesses.

The group processes 500,000 cattle and 1.5 million lambs a year, from which it produces 200,000 tonnes of added- value meat products.