North Wales abattoir closes – again

A North Wales abattoir has gone into administration for the second time in less than two years, owing around 80 livestock farmers for stock.

T H Sutcliffe, which operated a de-boning plant at Newport in Gwent, took over the former Cwm- ni Cig Arfon plant at Caernarfon in February 2005, but has now closed both with the loss of around 110 jobs.

The Gwynedd branch of the Farmers Union of Wales has been unable to discover how much livestock producers could lose on top of the £1.8m owed when CCA called in the receivers in August 2004, and admitted total debts of £3m.

“Suppliers recently heard that they will get none of that money, so they now face a double whammy,” said Gwynedd Watkin, FUW county executive officer.

“They were encouraged to send stock because they saw the Welsh Assembly’s decision to provide T H Sutcliffe with a £200,000 regional structural fund grant as a seal of approval.

“We believe this means there is a case for claiming the money owed to farmers for stock from the Assembly, which clearly had not examined the company’s accounts as thoroughly as possible.”

Mr Watkin added that a few of his members stood to lose a total of over £20,000.

But it was important that the abattoir re-opened as it was the only one killing beef cattle in north-west Wales.