THE NEWS that Cappoquin Chickens is to close with the loss of 200 jobs and more than €20 million annually to the local economy in west Waterford has been greeted with dismay by workers and poultry growers. It has been described as a "devastating blow" for the area.
Liquidator Aidan O'Connell of Deloitte confirmed yesterday that discussions with a third party to try and save the plant had ceased and with no further prospect of finding a buyer, he would move to wind down the company's operations.
Mr O'Connell met Siptu representatives yesterday afternoon to brief them on the collapse of a rescue deal involving British firm Derby Poultry and the O'Connor family, which has owned Cappoquin Chickens since its establishment in the 1930s.
Siptu Waterford branch secretary Davy Lane told The Irish Times that while workers were aware of the precarious position the company was in since going into examinership in the summer, they had still remained optimistic that an investor could be found.
"It came as a shock to most people, because everyone was hoping that with all the negotiations taking place, somebody would come in and buy the plant.
"It's a devastating blow, not just for Cappoquin but for all of west Waterford; it's the biggest employer in the area."
Mr Lane said he expected the wind-down to take between four and six weeks and stressed that workers would get their statutory redundancy. Mr O'Connell had applied to the State's solvency funds for funding to pay redundancy when he was appointed as examiner.
Ned Morrissey, chairman of the poultry growers committee of the IFA and a supplier to the plant, said more than 40 suppliers were similarly dismayed as they continued to hope that some deal could be reached.
"It's a sad old day for Cappoquin and the 40 or so growers who supply the plant are just gutted - we're much too far away from the other processors to start supplying them, so it looks like we're going to have to get out of poultry completely," he said.
Mr Morrissey said many of the poultry suppliers had invested heavily in recent years in chicken houses which were now redundant, while they were each on average owed about €50,000 for stock by Cappoquin Chickens.
"What's killing the Irish poultry industry, and Cappoquin isn't the end of it, is the fact that the Government sat on its hands and nodded its disapproval but did nothing. An investor would have had more confidence if they had done something about the labelling of imports."
John O'Connor of Cappoquin Chickens echoed Mr Morrissey's concerns about the future of the poultry industry in the face of twin threats from cheap imports and the rising price of chicken feed, which added €3 to €4 million to the company's costs last year.
Mr O'Connor said that Cappoquin had losses of €8.5 million, exclusive of loans to the family of about €3 million, and where the company has been struggling to break even in recent years, this rise in feed prices was devastating.
"From an O'Connor family point of view, we're deeply disappointed. We wish there was some way that we could save the jobs but we just didn't see a viable future. We committed so much financially to the business over the years that our resources have been exhausted."
Local Labour TD Brian O'Shea called on the Government to ensure Fás provided training to upskill employees. Fine Gael spokesman on agriculture Michael Creed said the closure reflected the Government's failure to address underlying problems in the poultry sector, such as spiralling feed costs, loopholes in labelling legislation and cheap imports.
