The leader of the TUV Party has branded the closure of a Dungannon retail packaging plant as “really bad news for Northern Ireland”, adding that it raises “serious Sea Border questions”.
The Linden ABP factory – based at the Granville Industrial Estate – announced on Tuesday (January 20) that they would cease operations at the site… putting a total of 338 jobs at risk.
Explaining the reasons for their regrettable decision, the company said “changes in the UK landscape” resulted in the “difficult but necessary requirement” to consolidate and reduce the number of retail packing facilities they operate within the UK including Northern Ireland.
Noting the devastating loss to the local economy and the wider Dungannon community, TUV leader and MP for North Antrim, Jim Allister also argued that the announcement signalled “really bad news Northern Ireland.”
Added Mr Allister: “My thoughts are with the people concerned and their families.
“At these times it is easy for politicians to line up to say what terrible news this is and how its impact will be far reaching, but if we are going to do our job we need to ask the question, what is going on, and what can be done about it?
“The explanation provided by ABP who own Linden Foods is that the company is: facing a challenging and changing UK and global marketplace for beef and lamb”.
“My understanding, having spoken to an industry source, is that Linden Foods packages meat products principally for the British Isles market and as such it must necessarily have been profoundly impacted by the Irish Sea Border to the extent that its role within ABP has not just been packaging meat from Northern Ireland, but meat from Great Britain.
“The movement of meat across the Irish Sea from Great Britain to Northern Ireland, that pre 2020 was a standard UK Internal Market movement, has been made a trade border movement by the imposition of the Windsor Framework Irish Sea Border.
“While it continues to make sense for companies like ABP to buy meat produced on Northern Ireland farms for sale in Northern Ireland or to be moved one way to Great Britain, I fear it no longer makes financial sense for it to take meat from GB to a packaging facility in Northern Ireland.
“Having a packaging plant in Scotland avoids all the additional costs of negotiating the border in terms of customs and SPS paperwork, border control post checks, delays and increased freight costs for the purpose of ferry movements from Great Britain to Northern Ireland.”
In this context, the MP noted that ABP established a large new packaging factory in Scotland in 2024.
Continuing, he said: “While it is possible that other factors have been a play, in a context where the purpose of businesses is to maximise profits and minimise costs, it is not credible to suggest that the arrival of the Irish Sea border has been without consequence for Linden Foods.
“To the extent that the above sets out the basic line of causation I do not blame ABP foods in any way. They have adapted their business model to accommodate the imposition of the Irish Sea Border.
“Responsibility lies instead with those who imposed the border, disinheriting us from unfettered access to our home market and disenfranchising us in 300 areas of law.
“It lies with the EU who imposed and govern the border. It lies with the Republic of Ireland for agitating for this humiliation and it lies with the UK Government for accepting it.
“This would be avoided completely under my Mutual Enforcement Bill currently before Parliament which would reinstate the UK Internal Market.”
There have been no further updates from Linden ABP in regards to the expected timescale for complete closure of the factory, however, the company has begun a formal consultation process with employees whose jobs are at risk because of it.
