Buyers found for all failed Canterbury Foods units

Jobs at all of the former Canterbury Foods plants were secured last month after administrators were able to sell them all as going concerns.

Plants on the Isle of Sheppey and at Whitstable, both in Kent, and at Bridgend, South Wales went to management buyout vehicle Medway Foods led by the former chief executive Paul Ainsworth. The sale of the plants, which make ingredients, pastry and unbaked frozen savoury pastry products, saved 200 jobs.

Meanwhile, the cooked meats products operation in Bristol, with 32 employees, was sold to TQF, a company set up by W&W Foods.

Ainsworth, who secured cash from GE Capital to back the Medway buyout, said: "We'd been trying to refinance the business for about five months. The site that was struggling the most was the meat products business [which was sold to Tranfield Foods in December], but basically, the banks pulled the plug on us in the New Year before we could complete the restructuring process.

"It's still early days for Medway, but we don't anticipate instituting any major changes at the pastry plants. They are doing well."

Canterbury posted an £11.5m loss before tax in the first half of 2005 on sales down 12% year-on-year at £20.7m.