The fresh produce industry has rallied around Wealmoor this week, after four firemen were killed fighting a blaze at the firm’s Atherstone packhouse.
The fire, which raged through Friday night and Saturday morning, gutted the vegetable packing and processing plant, which Wealmoor took on in August, after previous owner Bomfords went into liquidation.
Wealmoor’s commercial director Avnish Malde told FPJ: “It has been an appalling, desperate time for us all and we are devastated for the families and the men who have lost their lives.
“We have received an immense amount of support from the trade - from our peer companies, our suppliers, competitors and customers, and I would like to thank everybody for that support. Our staff have performed heroics to keep day-to-day operations going at what has also been a very difficult time for them. We have just tried to focus our energies on ensuring minimum disruption to our suppliers and customers, and put things into perspective at the end of each day.”
Work being carried out for supermarket customers at the Warwickshire packhouse, which handles large volumes of spring onions, green beans and peas, has been reallocated either to Wealmoor’s Hayes or Greenford sites, or to competitors. “Through our own facilities and those of our competitors, we’ve been able to absorb a lot of the work,” said Malde. “The Hayes facility was on wind down, but it has been reactivated and we have picked up a lot of the slack, but if maintaining supply to our customers means that our competitors do some of the work, then we’re happy with that and thankful to them for their help.”
Malde has had to deal with a huge media interest in the story, and conjecture in some quarters that has been “hurtful” and “unhelpful”, he said. “You can never prepare for something like this, but we have followed our procedures and I am confident that we’ve done everything possible to ensure we’ve done the right things.
“We are collaborating fully with the police and the fire brigade to get to the bottom of the matter as quickly as possible. It is extremely important for everyone to have peace of mind.”
Speculation was raised by front-page claims in one Sunday newspaper that the firefighters had entered the building to search for “sleeping migrant workers”, but Wealmoor refuted that allegation outright. “We can confirm that all 57 members of staff who were working at the premises on November 2 have been accounted for,” said a Wealmoor Atherstone spokesperson.
“We would like to state categorically that since we acquired the business in August 2007, there have been no incidences of employees sleeping in the premises overnight.”
Malde also added that, while a sprinkler system was not active inside the building, the company had been under no legal obligation to have one, and plans were in place to install an operational system.
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