End of takeover plan leaves 300 jobs in jeopardy

HOPES of saving over 300 jobs at the Castlemahon poultry plant in West Limerick appeared doomed last night after local chicken growers abandoned a takeover bid.

Shannon Development and the Limerick County Enterprise Board put up €15,000 for a consultant’s report on the potential viability of the plant.

After this report was presented to the growers at the weekend, they decided not to proceed.

The High Court appointed a provisional liquidator on October 2 at the request of the O’Kane Group, based in Ballymena, which took over Castlemahon in 1984 after the company hit serious financial difficulties.

Liquidator Kieran Wallace of KPMG tried to sell the company as a going concern. When a buyer could not be found, more than 70 local poultry growers formed a group to investigate buying it to keep it as a going concern.

At a meeting at the weekend they concluded it would be financially unviable.

The O’Kane group was yesterday accused of being “mean-minded” with the offer of two weeks’ statutory redundancy to its workers.

Senator Michael Finucane said: “Last year when they had the redundancy programme they gave workers five weeks. I think they are being mean-minded in now walking away from their workforce with just the two weeks on offer.”