Leicester-based RF Brookes is set to close, resulting in more than 200 members of staff losing their jobs.
Managers from the chilled food firm on Magna Road in South Wigston, which was bought out by the 2 Sisters Group last December as part of a £30m deal to purchase the Brookes Avana business from Premier Foods, have launched a 90-day consultation period.
This will involve the remaining 229 employees currently with the business, with RF Brookes due to close by end of March 2013, and its food production operations to be transferred to the company’s other manufacturing facilities.
A spokesman for 2 Sisters said: “After exploring all viable options, unfortunately it has not been possible to find a sustainable future for the loss-making factory. We are proposing to transfer the remaining products from Leicestershire to other company factories and close the site during the first quarter of 2013, following a 90-day consultation period with our 229 colleagues.”
Tony Lewis, regional officer for the Bakers Food and Allied Workers Union, told the BBC: “This is bad news for the workers, but it is also bad news for Wigston and Leicestershire. Some people have worked there for 25, even 30 years, and they are being thrown on the scrapheap, because jobs are scarce. It is just sad.”
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