A Tipperary meat-processing plant will reopen in the next few weeks following a five-month temporary closure.
A company spokesman for Fair Oak Foods in Clonmel has confirmed that slaughtering at the plant would begin again on June 10th, with the deboning operation reopening at a later date. He said the 50 employees laid off on a temporary basis would be offered the opportunity to return to their positions, while a further 30 full-time staff who were redeployed to the company's other facility in Carlow would return to Clonmel.
The layoffs had been across all sections of the company. The Fair Oak Foods Group announced a temporary shut-down of its Clonmel plant on January 6th, a decision which it said was reached following a strategic review of operations at its two processing sites in Clonmel and Bagenalstown, Carlow.
Fair Oak Foods said at the time that the move would safeguard the business from avoidable losses and protect the company for the year ahead, although this extension to the traditional seasonal shutdown raised fears about the company's long-term future in Clonmel. For the past number of months Fair Oak Foods' international trading division continued to operate out of Clonmel, as did the cold store operations.
The cattle procurement team provided a service for farmer suppliers from Clonmel, in booking cattle for slaughter at the Carlow plant.