Pork plant is sold for £35m

Pig processing plant is being taken over

Northern Ireland's biggest pork processing plant has a new owner, following the acquisition of Malton Foods by Grampian Country for £35m.

Malton, which has a number of pork processing plants in Britain, reported a loss of more than £11m last year.

The plant in Cookstown, County Tyrone, employs more than 300 people and slaughters about 10,000 pigs a week.

Grampian is one of the United Kingdom's biggest meat processing companies and has extensive pig rearing facilities in Scotland.

Closures

Malton purchased the Unipork group three years ago for £28m following a fire at its Lovell and Christmas factory at Ballymoney.

It has since closed the bacon packing plant at Enniskillen in County Fermanagh with the loss of more than 250 jobs and it closed another packing plant at Ahoghill, County Antrim, with the loss of a further 200 jobs.

Malton Foods has been rationalising its pork processing business in recent years, closing a number of factories.

It has blamed the downturn in the pig industry in Northern Ireland and across the UK for factory closures

The company exports its products to 30 countries worldwide.