80 jobs at Irish Pride lost despite rescue

Around 80 jobs are expected to be lost at Irish Pride — one of the country’s leading bakery businesses — despite it being rescued.

It was announced yesterday that Co Longford-based company, Pat the Baker has bought the majority of assets of Irish Pride Bakeries —which entered receivership in June — for an undisclosed sum, from joint receivers Kieran Wallace and Shane McCarthy of KPMG.

The purchase mainly covers Irish Pride’s primary manufacturing facility at Taghmon, Co Wexford, and will save 250 jobs.

However, the sale doesn’t include the company’s plant at Ballinrobe, Co Mayo, which is understood to employ 80 people, and will now close as a result.

The receivers said they did not recieve any bids for the Mayo facility, nor its assets, and operations will be wound down, with a redundancy consultation process with the affected employees to begin “straight away”.

Ranked as Ireland’s sixth- largest manufactured grocery brand, Irish Pride was sold by diversified investment group, One51 to privately-owned firm, WHW Bakeries last year before entering receivership two months ago.

The purchase by Pat the Baker will require clearance from the Competiton and Consumer Protection Commission. However, the receivers added that the latest movements will not impact ongoing production and supply of products.

Irish Pride is also ranked as Ireland’s second-largest bakery business, with reported annual sales of around €50m. The company delivers nearly 16,000 wrapped bread and related products to retailers across the country every week.