A REVIVAL of the sugar sector could sustain up to 5,000 jobs, according to a feasibility study produced by an expert industry group and verified by PWC.

A MANAGEMENT buyout of Irish-owned food group Greencore is looking an increasingly likely possibility, according to one British-based market analyst.

THE results from Greencore, former owners of Irish Sugar — shut down a few years ago due to misguided thinking — showed some resilience.

GREENCORE Group will publish full-year results next week with no major surprises anticipated in the figures.

GREENCORE Group, which is active in the British and US convenience food retail sectors, said trading continues in line with expectations for the year.

Every sector of society was expecting pain from Budget 2010 and likewise, they all had a wish-list in advance of yesterday’s speech. Claire O’Sullivan travelled to the north Cork town of Mallow last week to talk to retailers and business people about what the town wanted and needed from Brian Lenihan’s budget.

GREENCORE, which has developed a major footprint in the convenience food sector in Britain, is likely to sell its malting business to the French Soufflet Group.

A MOTHER-of-three has swapped her idyllic life in Co Wicklow to take control of thousands of tonnes of food aid being shipped in to east Africa.

THE loss of thousands of jobs across the country has been well documented in recent months but, whereas others are feeling the cold hand of recession for the first time only this year, parts of Cork saw the Celtic Tiger shot and skinned many years ago.

A SUGAR company is seeking multi-million-euro damages, including punitive and aggravated damages, for losses allegedly sustained as a result of Irish Sugar plc’s abuse of a dominant market position during the 1990s.

GREENCORE, the world’s biggest maker of prepared sandwiches, has been in the news for all the wrong reasons lately.

BIOFUEL production has forced global food prices up by a huge 75%, far more than previously estimated, according to a confidential World Bank report.

GREENCORE’S shock revelations last week that it will write-off €21 million in operating profits was a bolt out of the blue.

A SUGAR importer and distributor has begun a High Court action for damages against the Greencore Group arising out of a European Commission decision that it had abused its dominant market position during the 1980s and 1990s.

THE Government had no power under the relevant EC regulations to dictate to Greencore how it should spend some €145.5 million in restructuring aid following the rationalisation of the European sugar industry and Greencore’s withdrawal from sugar production here, the High Court was told yesterday.

FORMER workers at Irish Sugar in Mallow yesterday called on Agriculture and Food Minister Mary Coughlan not to pay Greencore its share of the European Union sugar industry restructuring fund.

GREENCORE has said it is not prepared to honour the Labour Court’s recommendation on the amount of redundancy pay it should give the workers which it made redundant in North Cork when Irish Sugar production ceased last May.

GREENCORE Irish Sugar yesterday declined an invitation to attend the Labour Court and firmly warned the redundancy package offered to former workers would “not be changed under any circumstances”.

ONLY the EU and the Council of Agriculture Ministers could come up with a scheme to pay out €145.6 million to Greencore and sugar beet growers, on condition that the Mallow sugar plant is demolished.

HUNDREDS of people are to march through the streets of Mallow on September 23 to protest at the way one of the town’s biggest former employers has handled the redundancy package for its workers.

The Irish Farmers Association (IFA) confirmed today that it will defend beet growers interests in court over the distribution of EU compensation funds for the reform of the Irish sugar industry.

UNIONS representing Irish Sugar/Greencore workers have asked Agriculture Minister Mary Coughlan to delay the allocation of a €144-million restructuring fund until management implements a Labour Court recommendation on redundancy terms.

The unions representing workers at Greencore have asked the Government to delay a decision on allocating compensation arising from the EU's recent sugar reforms.

GREENCORE’S apparent disinterest in ethanol from sugar beet is typical of the company’s conservative approach.

SIGNIFICANT moves are afoot to prevent Greencore, owners of Irish Sugar, from dismantling the Mallow sugar factory without first making every effort to find an alternative use for the facility.

SIPTU has warned that the possibility of industrial action at Irish Sugar is no idle threat.

SIGNIFICANT moves are afoot to prevent Greencore, owner of Irish Sugar, from dismantling the Mallow sugar factory without first making every effort to find an alternative use for the facility.

Irish Sugar workers in Mallow have been balloted for industrial action following the breakdown of redundancy talks.

GREENCORE will get just €100 million of the €146m earmarked for the industry through the EU’s compensation fund.

IN school, we learned of the importance of the family as the core of society. We also were taught that family farms producing staple foods were essential to maintain a viable economy, especially in a time of international uncertainty.

DEVASTATED Irish Sugar workers maintained last night that the doomed Mallow factory had a future.

The demise of the Irish sugar industry was tonight condemned as a catastrophe by unions and as a devastating body blow by beet growers.

THE production of ethanol from sugar beet is a possible alternative outlet for farmers, Agriculture and Food Minister Mary Coughlan told the Dáil.

HOPES of establishing who owns the sugar production quotas which the EU wants to scrap have been dashed by the European Commission’s statement that the quota is not an asset. It is not owned by anybody, but is simply a mechanism for regulating the market, according to the Commission.

TWO Co Limerick boys’ sense of fun caught the eyes of the judges and helped their school win gold, and €1,500 for sports equipment.

THE sprawling 285-acre Mallow Sugar Factory complex yesterday looked like Cape Canaveral before the launch of a shuttle space mission.