Avara Foods announced a proposal to shut its Abergavenny factory in autumn 2023, which would impact on all colleagues based at the site, according to a company-issued press release.

Since the COVID pandemic, the company has faced significant inflationary pressure in fuel, commodities and labour, which has driven up pricing and significantly reduced demand for UK-produced turkey in the retail market. To maintain a competitive customer offer, they have started to re-engineer their turkey business to operate a more efficient operational footprint focused on fewer, better invested facilities.

Over the past six months, Avara Foods has looked in depth at a range of options to enable our wider business to compete effectively in the market in the future. These included different potential uses for the Abergavenny site.

Regretfully, this process identified that volumes could be processed more efficiently in its other operations and with lower capital investment. This has resulted in the proposal to close the Abergavenny site.

This difficult decision has not been taken lightly, the company said, and in no way reflects on the hard-working colleagues.

"In the coming days we will begin a collective consultation process with the individuals that are affected by this proposal," the press release closed. "The nature of this consultation means that no final decisions have been made and there will be no speculation as to how the process will conclude."