A frozen burger plant in Ireland that was implicated in the horsemeat scandal is being sold. The ABP Food Group has inked a deal with the Kepak Group to sell the Silvercrest Foods facility at Ballybay, County Monaghan, as part of a plan to exit the burger sector in the country.
The sale, subject to approval by the Competition Authority, involves the transfer of 122 staff currently employed at Silvercrest, who have been kept on full pay while the future of the plant was being resolved. The Silvercrest plant was the first company to show positive results for horse DNA in its burgers, following a round of sample tests carried out at the plant by the Department of Agriculture in January.
These results sparked the beginning of the horsemeat controversy which resulted in production being suspended at the plant and the loss of three contracts from Tesco, Aldi and the UK Co-operative Group believed to be worth in the region of EUR 60 million annually. In the wake of the controversy, Silvercrest withdrew ten million burgers from store shelves. ABP CEO Paul Finnerty said the decision to sell the plant is the right one for both the wider Group and also for the employees.
Finnerty said it had become apparent that the Group was only one of a large number of leading European operations affected by the horsemeat issue. The company has assured customers that its chilled business has been unaffected by the horsemeat issue and sales of its chilled beef products have remained unaffected. "Irish beef is held in the highest regard internationally and, as Europe's largest beef exporter, ABP Food Group will continue to invest in expanding and developing this and the other businesses within the group," he said.
