Talks over brewery sell-off

Interbrew also owns Stella Artois

A Sinn Fein delegation has held a "frank meeting" with management of a Belfast brewery set to be sold off.

The owners of the Bass Brewery in west Belfast are to put its manufacturing facility on the market.

They have warned that it could close if they do not find a buyer.

Up to 80 jobs would go if brewing were to cease on the Glen Road site.

Interbrew said the decision had been taken following the ending of a long-term contract to bottle soft drinks at the plant.

The company said it was willing to offer any purchaser a long-term contract to produce beer for the Irish market.

We expressed in frank terms our dissatisfaction with the manner in which Interbrew has dealt with the Glen Road site and the staff who work there Gerry Adams Sinn Fein president

In total, the company employs close to 300 people in Northern Ireland.

Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams led a party delegation to meet Interbrew management on Thursday morning.

Mr Adams said they discussed what would happen next at the brewery.

"We expressed in frank terms our dissatisfaction with the manner in which Interbrew has dealt with the Glen Road site and the staff who work there," he said.

On Wednesday, Mr Adams and assembly member Michael Ferguson held talks with Enterprise Minister Barry Gardiner over plans to sell off the brewery.

Mr Ferguson said the Glen Road plant was a major employer in the area as well as being a profitable enterprise.

If there was no sale, the manufacturing facility would have to close by early 2005, said the company.

However, other operations on the site and a sales and distribution depot in Omagh, County Tyrone, would be unaffected, it said.

The brewery was founded in 1897 and brews and kegs Bass and Tennent's Lager, and kegs Stella Artois.