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<\/p>\nABP Linden, part of Irish firm ABP Food Group, announced the closure of a Dungannon packing site with the loss of 338 jobs on Monday night.<\/p>\n
It said \u201cchanges to the UK landscape\u201d had made it necessary to reduce the number of its retail packing facilities and close the site at Granville Industrial Estate. <\/p>\n
The company added the decision had been \u201ca very difficult step” but that other processing sites were not affected.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Jim Allister, TUV leader and North Antrim MP<\/p>\n
ABP, which was founded by Irish businessman and so-called \u2018beef baron\u2019 Larry Goodman in 1954, acquired Linden Foods in full in 2021.<\/p>\n
The deal gave ABP control of around 40% of the beef and lamb market in Northern Ireland.<\/p>\n
TUV leader Jim Allister, the leader of the TUV and MP for North Antrim, said the job losses were \u201cdevastating for those concerned and their families\u201d.<\/p>\n
But he said he had been informed by an \u201cindustry source\u201d that ABP Linden was likely to have been \u201cprofoundly impacted\u201d by post-Brexit changes enshrined in the Windsor Framework.<\/p>\n
The introduction of checks on items such as meat entering NI from Great Britain, made to ensure NI remains in the EU single market for goods, has imposed what unionists have called \u201can Irish Sea border\u201d which has also brought added costs. <\/p>\n
Mr Allister said: \u201cWhile it continues to make sense for companies like ABP to buy meat produced on NI farms for sale in NI or to be moved one way to Great Britain, I fear it no longer makes financial sense for it to take meat from GB to a packaging facility in NI.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said responsibility was \u201cwith those who imposed the border\u201d as he blamed the EU, Republic of Ireland and the UK Government.<\/p>\n
Asked if post-Brexit changes had played an role in its decision, ABP Food Group said: \u201cAs the internal consultation process has only just commenced, out of respect to those colleagues who are potentially impacted, it would not be appropriate to comment further at this time.\u201d<\/p>\n
The MP for Fermanagh and South Tyrone said there had been \u201cmassive shock\u201d at the announcement.<\/p>\n
Pat Cullen said Sinn Fein had requested a meeting with the company.<\/p>\n
“What we will be principally asking the company to do, is prioritising redeployment for those employees and \u2013 given that they have other factories throughout the constituency and further afield \u2013 we\u2019ll be asking them to give priority to moving those people to those other areas, first and foremost,\u201d Ms Cullen told BBC NI.<\/p>\n
She declined to address Mr Allister\u2019s argument that the Irish Sea border was to blame for the job losses.<\/p>\n
Niall Maneely, president of Dungannon and South Tyrone Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said he was \u201cshocked and deeply concerned\u201d by the job losses.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe business, located on the outskirts of the town, has played an important role as one of the area\u2019s major food processors. The employment it has provided over the years has contributed significantly to the vibrancy and economic well-being of the town and wider community.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said that while ABP Food Group made its own business decisions, \u201cthe Chamber would strongly urge that any job losses be implemented gradually rather than through a complete and immediate shutdown\u201d.<\/p>\n
“A full closure would send shockwaves through the town and would be damaging for other local businesses, town centre traders, and property owners who provide rental accommodation for workers.\u201d<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
More than 300 jobs are at risk at the factory. Photo from 2020.<\/p>\n
News catch up – Tuesday 20th January <\/p>\n
But he said he hoped employees would be able to find work nearby, \u201cgiven the strength of the food sector within the area\u201d.<\/p>\n
Karol McQuade, SDLP Dungannon councillor, said: \u201cThe SDLP will be reaching out to ABP on behalf of staff and will do everything possible to support them through this process.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ABP Linden, part of Irish firm ABP Food Group, announced the closure of a Dungannon packing site with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":711349,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5226],"tags":[802,748,2000,299,5187,1699,4884,778,23147,16,15],"class_list":["post-711348","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brexit","tag-brexit","tag-britain","tag-eu","tag-europe","tag-european","tag-european-union","tag-great-britain","tag-margaret-canning","tag-ni-protocol","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115934519955458106","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/711348","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=711348"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/711348\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/711349"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=711348"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=711348"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=711348"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}