Hope for at-risk food jobs

There are six Hibernia factory sites across England

The future of 2,000 UK food workers facing redundancy could be known by Christmas.

Receivers for Hibernia Foods which makes Sara Lee cakes and Mr Brains faggots, say they could sell the business before the New Year.

KPMG was appointed to manage the holding company and six subsidiaries, which employ about 2,000 staff at six sites in the UK.

A spokesman for KPMG said some of the largest companies in the industry had shown interest in buying the group.

Receiver Myles Halley said any sale would be complex and that it would take some time for any deal to be completed.

Progress made

He said: "We are hopeful we can reach a conclusion before the Christmas holidays."

Hibernia makes bakery products under licence for 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.

Mr Halley said KPMG was making "encouraging progress" towards selling Hibernia as a going concern.

"We are pleased to say there has been considerable interest in acquiring the businesses," he said.

"Most encouragingly, some of the largest companies in this sector have emerged as potential buyers."

Family promotion

At the start of October Hibernia announced it was to invest more than £3m in a new facility to manufacture Mr Brain's Faggots in Hartlepool.

Earlier in 2003 it launched a high-profile campaign to increase sales of the faggots, and held a national competition to find a family which would promote the pork dish.

The group employs 693 staff at two own label product plants in Hartlepool.

More than 500 make Sara Lee and Entenmanns products at a factory in Bridlington

Another 400 workers are employed at another own-label site in Stockton-on-Tees.

In Birmingham, 250 people work at a chilled dessert factory, 200 at a Mr Brains plant in Bristol.