Fresh hope for pet food factory workers

Workers were tonight hopeful for the redevelopment of the Co Longford pet food factory ravaged in a fire, after management at C&D Foods said it would be taking back 173 staff in two weeks.

A partial reopening of the plant in Edgeworthstown will see some of the 500-strong workforce start back at the cannery from February 6.

Staff have been out of work since the factory was devastated in a fire last Sunday.

Siptu branch organiser Seamus McNamee said today’s announcement had raised hopes across the community at the company’s commitment to rebuilding the business.

“There’s an expectation that the company will redevelop the cannery and hopefully jobs will be there in the future,” he said.

He added the numbers which could be taken back were dependent on customer demand.

Today’s announcement still leaves a large number of the factory’s employees without work in the short term, but it is hoped the firm will return to full production within two years.

The company produced 160 million cans of pet food last year, generating sales of around €100m, but its existing stocks are expected to run out in less than a fortnight.

The workers will resume operations at the soft can section of the plant which was not destroyed by the fire.

The County Mayor of Longford, Frank Kilbride, has said he understood C&D Foods intended to go into full production again as soon as possible.

“I’m being told by reliable sources that they’re hoping that they will have the whole plant up and running within two years,” he said.

C&D Foods was established by former Taoiseach Albert Reynolds in 1969 and currently has contracts to supply major British supermarket chains including Tesco, Asda and Sainsbury,

Mr Reynold’s son Philip, who now manages and owns C&D Pet Foods plant, was explaining the company’s plans to the workforce in Longford today.

Following the meeting, Mr Reynolds said he had brought employees up to speed on the damage done to the plant, and the plans for the next few weeks.

He said he would be making a decision on the ultimate future of the factory within a month.

People with longer term service would have the right to apply for the positions available, whereas temporary staff jobs would not be reinstated, he said.

And he accepted redundancy was an issue he would have to address.

“A very important part of what we’ve been doing all week is keeping our customers completely up to speed on what’s been happening.

“There’s no way we would have been able to make the announcements we were able to make today without our customers agreeing to fairly significant and fairly serious changes to the commercial agreements that existed with us prior to the fire,” he said.

“Had they not been prepared to do that I wouldn’t be in a position to announce the return to work of 173 employees today – so if that’s an indication of the goodwill that exists for C&D and all of its staff from our customer base it does give us something to hope for in the future,” he said.