Poultry firm cuts 300 jobs

A POULTRY firm announced the closure of a factory yesterday with the loss of 300 jobs.

Premier Poultry, part of Hillsdown, said it planned to close its factory at Ripon, North Yorkshire, and switch production to its Scunthorpe plant, which had spare capacity. A spokesman for Premier said the EC was demanding higher processing standards and the company could not justify the investment needed to modernise the 30-year-old plant at Ripon. The company had been one of the biggest employers in the small market town.