Bathgate plant stays open – for now
28 June 2000
Bathgate plant stays open – for now
By FWi staff
MEAT processing firm ABP has pledged to keep its Bathgate plant open for processing lambs – at least for this season.
ABP gave this commitment after management submitted plans to cut running costs in bid to persuade the company not to proceed with closure plans.
Throughput at the West Lothian plant, which can handle 15,000 lambs a week, will rise over the next month as more stock are finished across the north.
However, an ABP spokesman admitted that the long-term future of the plant was still uncertain.
In January the company announced that Bathgate was to close, but delayed this by a month in April to consider cost-cutting measures.
ABP said its future activities lay with beef, rather than sheep, although its plants at Shrewsbury and Lurgan in Northern Ireland also have sheep lines.
In January ABP closed its plant at Wellingborough, Northamptonshire.