Dungannon Meats Group has won £25m of business through new contracts, sweetening the pill of the loss of its UK fresh beef contract with Sainsbury
last October.
The multiple has granted Dungannon an extra £17m of lamb business, a further £1.2m to supply burgers and a contract to supply retail-packed beef products to its Northern Ireland stores in 2005.
However, DMG said it still planned to make 95 staff redundant in its Northern Ireland operation, though 35 would be re-employed following a restructuring.
A further 40 casual, weekend and student workers would not be retained, it added.
The fresh beef contract with Sainsbury was worth between £80-£90m at retail level. A spokesman for Dungannon said: “Since Sainsbury announced its intention to move to one beef supplier, we have implemented a recovery plan that has already generated well over £25m of new business from existing and new customers.”
He added: “Additional contracts are under negotiation and we are confident of ultimately replacing the fresh beef business with Sainsbury.”
Northern Ireland-based Dungannon also owns Rose County Foods in Clitheroe, Lancashire, and Oriel Jones in Wales, as well as Exel Meats, Newgrange Meats and an ex-Galtee Meats facility, all in the Republic of Ireland.
It said that the redundancies would be limited to its Northern Ireland sites.
Greg Meenehan