Greenvale is looking at closing one of its three packing sites, with 190 jobs at risk.
The potato supplier is proposing to transfer all packing and associated operations tothe group’s sites in Scotland and Cambridgeshire, with operations from the Tern Hill packing site in Shropshire being switched.
The company anticipates creating approximately 50 posts at its other sites, and would support the transfer of the 190 Tern Hill employees to these locations.
Angus Armstrong, chief executive of Greenvale, said: 'We regret any potential redundancies and will do all we can to look after the people affected.The west of the country will continue to be an important supply area for Greenvale and no growers will be impacted by the closure of the site. Greenvale’s Swancote specialist food ingredients division and processing plant will continue to operate as normal.'
He added that one of the reasons they are looking to close the Tern Hill site is due to its age, with the level of future investment required being significantly greater than at the other two Greenvale sites.
The company has today entered a 45-day consultation period with employees at the Tern Hill site.
A spokesperson for Greenvale, said: 'With immediate effect, we will elect and commence communications with employee representatives as well as individual employees on a one-to-one basis.
'This consultation period will end on 12 May, when a final decision on the company’s proposal will be communicated to all Greenvale employees.
'If it is confirmed that the site is to cease operations, it is anticipated that production would continue in a reducing capacity at Tern Hill until August 2014.'
Greenvale's parent company, Produce Investments, also today revealed its half-year results to 28 December 2013. These showed a revenue fall of 0.1 per cent to £89.6 million, but there was a significant turnaround in operating profits, which went from a loss of £681,000 in the same period of 2012 to a profit of £5.8m in the latest 26-week period.
'I am pleased to report that the weather and growing conditions during 2013 were significantly better than that of 2012, with an improvement seen in both quality and yield of the potato crop,' Armstrong said.
'In 2012, the lowest-yielding and poorest-quality crop since 1976 resulted in exceptionally high free buy prices for potatoes with additional imported tonnage having to be procured to fulfil UK market requirements. The inevitable time lag in achieving the necessary price increases to mitigate the increased raw material costs impacted last year's results, particularly in the first half year.
'The growing season for 2013 has seen a return to more favourable and stable growing conditions which has resulted in a necessary improvement in operating profit.'
The financial announcement had a positive effect in this morning's trading. Produce Investments’ AIM share price has seen some significant swings in recent months, tumbling from a high of 320p on 1 November 2013, to a low of 215p on 7 January. Similarly it fell from 255p on 21 March to 227.5p on 24 March, but it had rebounded to 232p by 10am in this morning’s trading.
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