550 face the chop at foods group

ALMOST 550 jobs are to go at foods group Grampian. The independently-owned business, one of the country's largest chicken processors, said it would shut its site at Newbridge, on the outskirts of Edinburgh.

The firm blamed tough competition - 'we must ensure that our business becomes more efficient and robust enough to face the continual developments within our market place,' said Malcolm Smith, chief executive of the firm's chicken division.

But the decision comes just three months after Grampian won planning permission for a business park on the factory site. 'The workforce on the site has been kept fully informed of these developments,' it added.

Grampian would transfer most of the processing work at Newbridge to its base in Coupar Angus, in Angus. Smith said the Newbridge workforce would also be given the opportunity to apply for jobs at Coupar Angus and its Cambuslang site.

The company has been trimming jobs and costs in recent years, hit by growing competition. It made profits of nearly £16m in the year ended May 2001, on sales of more than £850m. At that time it employed 10,225 staff.