FOOD FIRM TOLD: PAY BACK £500K
SCOTTISH ENTERPRISE TARGET 2 SISTERS
BY ANDY PHILIP a.philip@dailyrecord.co.uk A PROCESSED food company who shut a Scottish factory with the loss of hundreds of jobs are under pressure to pay back public cash from a £500,000 subsidy, the Record can reveal.
The firm, 2 Sisters, received taxpayers’ money to support jobs and assets in Cambuslang, near Glasgow, in 2015, two years after taking it over.
The owners shut the poultry processing factory in August this year with the loss of 450 jobs.
But the small print stated that some of the £543,000 total depended on the company remaining at the site until 2020.
The company ceased full production on November 2.
Scottish Enterprise gave them the public money and are now in talks to claw back the cash.
Glasgow Labour MSP James Kelly said: “During the final weeks of the plant running, Government ministers took Scottish Enterprise to Cambuslang with no mention of this money.
“For the people who lost their jobs, this development is a complete kick in the teeth.”
Scottish Enterprise said: “The company did not meet their contractual obligation to retain project assets until the end of the period of conditions. We are in discussions with the company regarding the implications.”
The parent company also run a slaughterhouse in Coupar Angus, near Perth, which was awarded subsidies worth £1.4million in June.
A spokesman for the Cambuslang operation said: “We are currently discussing our grant terms to reach a satisfactory outcome for all parties.”
Labour MP Ged Killen had been involved in mediation after the Cambuslang announcement, and said the terms of the grants were not disclosed in the talks.
He claimed the details, which emerged in freedom of information requests, raise “serious questions” about how the separate Coupar Angus contract was negotiated.
That cash was part of a wider Government-run grant scheme.
Killen said: “Such knowledge may have helped achieve a better outcome for those workers who have lost their jobs.”