Jobs in Birmingham at Hibernia Food Holdings were under threat last night after the company failed to get finance to see through its restructuring plans and ran up losses of more than £10 million. Workers at six sites in the UK employing a total of 2,000 people, including 250 employees at its chilled dessert factory at Garretts Green, Birmingham, now have joint receivers from KPMG at Birmingham and in the East Midlands running the business. Miles Halley, one of the joint receivers, said there had been no final decision about redundancies but every effort would be made to minimise the number and the attractiveness of the business units sold as separate entities could help to keep jobs. Competition in the food sector is intense and Hibernia, which has its registered office in Ireland and is quoted on Nasdaq listings, closed down its Bristol operation which it planned to move to sites in the north of England. The decision was a bid to cut its costs and create better sales margins but the company failed to get capital investment into the business. Mr Halley was busy yesterday ensuring customers supplies were running smoothly. He said: We are already talking to people who may be interested in the businesses but at present it is difficult to sort the wheat from the chaff. The sector is tough - and one has only to look at Northern Foods and Geest to see just how tough - but Hibernia made some mistakes as certain organisations do for the best reasons. They were restructuring and moving sites around and they had hoped to get the refinancing within the time scale laid down but it did not happen, he said. It is understood the company was halfway through its restruc-turing but the cash was not there to see it through. Mr Halley said the groups losses were falling and trade was improving but it was operating against small margins and Hibernia had also lost a major customer. Hibernia Foods makes bakery products under licence to US food and textiles group Sara Lee, and chilled desserts under licence to Entenmanns as well as Mr Brains meat faggots and own label products for major supermarkets. The group also has 693 staff at two own-label product plants in Hartlepool, 550 making Sara Lee and Entenmanns products at a factory in Bridlington, 400 at another own label site in Stockton-on-Tees and 200 at a Mr Brains plant at Bristol. KPMG were also appointed to Hibernia Foods and its Yeagar subsidiary, which employs about 30 staff. A KPMG spokesman said all staff would be kept on while the receivers sought a buyer. Joint receiver Allan Graham said: We are currently trading the business while we seek buyers for the assets. However, to continue to do so successfully, we must retain the support of customers, suppliers, creditors, and employees throughout this process and we hope to seek assurances from them on this front during the coming days. Earlier this year the firm told shareholders it was in an upward trend both with respect to revenues and profitability. | 
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