Credit crunch and time hits farmers keen to buy Cappoquin

FARMERS hoping to buy out the ailing Cappoquin Chickens plant in Co Waterford are being thwarted by the credit crunch and a lack of time in their efforts to save hundreds of jobs.

A co-operative of 21 chicken breeders, rearers and growers has expressed an interest in buying the processing plant as a going concern from the liquidator, appointed a week ago to administer the company.

The liquidator was given six weeks by the High Court on Tuesday to run the company — which employs about 250 full-time and part-time staff — and either find a buyer or wind down the business.

However, it is thought there is only about another week to secure a buyer for the entire operation as the winding-up process would take several weeks if the plant is not taken over.

Yesterday, IFA poultry chairman and Cappoquin Chickens supplier Ned Morrissey expressed pessimism about the farmers’ proposed €3 million takeover.

“It’s too much money for growers to come up with,” he said. “We’re having difficulty getting the funding. It’s very hard to get support from banks or anybody in the current climate.”

It is estimated that any buyer would need about €2m to purchase the company and another €1m in working capital to keep it in business.

“I believe there’s a great opportunity to turn that business around,” he said.

British-based food company Derby Poultry is understood to have visited the Cappoquin factory yesterday to assess the business. However, it is thought it would need a partner to buy it out.

Mr Morrissey did not rule out a partnership between the growers and Derby Poultry, but it is thought to be unlikely.

Meanwhile, Fine Gael MEP Colm Burke — who recently met with many of the employees and suppliers of Cappoquin Chickens — said he hoped the plant could be rescued.

“If it does close, it will have a huge economic effect on the area. It’s the biggest employer in the immediate area and there are a large number of people who are totally dependent on that industry.”

Mr Burke said it was “frightening” to think Ireland could be importing chickens from abroad and repackaging them as Irish “when the people buying them aren’t aware they are not from Ireland”.

However, a spokesman for Retail Ireland, which represents the big supermarket groups, denied any allegation that retailers are involved in “a conscious effort to mislead the Irish consumer” by repackaging imported chicken and passing it off as Irish.

“It just doesn’t happen,” he said. “If there’s a significant reformulation such as deboning or being put into a ready-meal, then the country of origin changes.”