Avara Foods has proposed closing its Abergavenny site in autumn of this year, which it said would impact “all colleagues based at the site”.
The food business, which supplies chicken, turkey and duck products to retailers, said the Welsh site currently employs over 400 people.
In the coming days, the company said it will begin a collective consultation process with the individuals that are affected by this proposal.
The proposal is a result of a six-month process carried out by the company to assess different potential uses for the Abergavenny site.
This was in a bid to enable its “wider business to compete effectively in the market in the future”.
An Avara Foods spokesperson said: “Regretfully, this process identified that volumes could not be processed more efficiently in other operations with lower capital investment.
“This has resulted in the proposal to close the Abergavenny site.
“This difficult decision has not been take lightly and in no way reflects on the hard-working colleagues.”
The company’s Abergavenny facility was part of the acquisition of turkey processor Cranberry Foods by Faccenda in 2012.
The site runs a “cut and pack” operation, predominantly preparing turkey products, alongside some chicken lines, for retailers.
Inflationary pressure
The company’s spokesperson said that, since the Covid-19 pandemic, it has faced “significant inflationary pressure” in fuel, commodities and labour.
This has driven up pricing and significantly reduced demand for UK-produced turkey in the trail market, they said.
“To maintain a competitive customer offer, Avara has started to reengineer its turkey business to operate a more efficient operational footprint focused on fewer, better invested facilities,” the spokesperson added.
On the consultation of the Abergavenny site closure, the spokesperson said: “The nature of this consultation means that no final decisions have been made and there will be no speculation as to how the process will conclude.”
