Oscar Mayer has agreed to acquire David Wood Foods’ factory in Flint, North Wales, to produce meat-free foods.
Following the acquisition, the company says that it plans to temporarily close the Flint site to upgrade the facilities to meet the technical requirements of its future ready-meal production process.
Commenting on the decision to redeploy Flint as a uniquely meat-free facility, Oscar Mayer’s chief executive Francois LeGrain said: “Although the Covid pandemic has changed consumer preferences with people having more time to cook from scratch at home, the meat-free alternative segment continues to enjoy significant growth and is strategically important to the Oscar Mayer group.
“The acquisition and redevelopment of Flint will provide a future-proofed manufacturing solution that will enable us to increase our provision of meat-free meals in response to growing consumer demand.”
Oscar Mayer says that ‘many’ of Flint’s existing staff will join its workforce following the acquisition, which it expects to complete at the end of the month.
LeGrain continued: “We intend to start Flint employees’ introduction to Oscar Mayer at our neighbouring factory in Wrexham (Rowan Foods) while temporarily closing the Flint site to enable an upgrade of its facilities…Thereafter our new colleagues will return to a revamped Flint factory under new management.”
Oscar Mayer recently announced the potential closure of its sites in Chard, Somerset, which manufacture private label packaged ready meals for UK supermarkets.
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