More than 60 people could lose their jobs, as a meat processing plant in Kelloholm announce they are considering redundancies.

Browns Food Group have said that they have seen a sustained downturn in activity due to the coronavirus pandemic, with turnover down 25 per cent, which has led to them considering the jobs of 63 members of staff.

A spokesperson for Browns said: “This is devastating for us. We have only looked to invest in and grow the business over the last 25 years and are extremely proud of the way the business has developed and supports the livelihoods of the communities that we operate in.

“However, we have to face up to a new reality of uncertainty when we consider the next 12 months and beyond.

“We are looking at headcount reduction and the possibility of redundancies. We are today announcing that we are entering into a period of collective consultation with the employees who may be impacted.”

“Along with most other businesses, we took the difficult decision at the end of March to furlough a number of employees. If we had not been able to do this, we would have had to ask those employees to take unpaid leave or to have made them redundant.

“We do not know how many of our customers will trade in the future and we know that a number have already ceased to trade and some whilst still owing us considerable sums of money.

“We must now take steps to support the long-term sustainability of our business.

“We are today announcing that we are entering into a period of collective consultation with the employees who may be impacted if we progressed the proposal at site to seek out ways of avoiding or mitigating this.

“No decision has been made at this time, and we will continue to look at ways of avoiding a redundancy situation throughout this period, however, if this is not possible and the proposal were to progress, then this would result in a number of roles being made redundant.”

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