Northumberland Foods could be saved by frozen potato firm
Aug 25 2010 by Brian Daniel, The Journal
A GROUP of potato farmers from Scotland last night emerged as a possible saviour for a failed North East food company.
Bosses at the Borders Premium Potatoes co-operative told The Journal they may consider a buy to take over Amble-based Northumberland Foods, which ceased trading on Friday.
The frozen potato producer went into administration on Wednesday, when all 250 staff were sent home and told to await further news.
Administrators Begbies Traynor was holding advanced negotiations with a firm interested in buying the Coquet Enterprise Park-based company, but on Friday it was announced that the deal had failed to materialise and all staff were made redundant.
The Journal has since been contacted by Borders Premium Potatoes, a co-operative of 17 potatoes farms in the Scottish Borders and Fife area, which has supplied Northumberland Foods and its previous incarnations Cheviot Foods and Jus-Rol for a number of years.
Borders says its farmers are owed around £500,000 by the recently failed company and has now approached the administrator to register an interest in taking over Northumberland Foods.
Its board, consisting of representatives from a nucleus of its farms, met yesterday. It is to meet again on Friday and says Peter Kirkham, a director at Northumberland Foods, will attend and provide a copy of the company’s accounts.
Managing director George Best last night told The Journal he did not think there was any chance the co-operative would get any of its money back, and that it would look on any return as a bonus.
He revealed that a bid to take over Northumberland Foods was possible, depending on farmers’ thoughts after seeing the firm’s books.
He said: “If we were happy with what we saw, who knows what can happen?
“I want to make sure we do not give people false hope but if it looks OK, the board might think there could be some hope of us resurrecting this factory. At the moment it is all hypothetical.
“That outlet is important to this area for potatoes.”
Andrew Haslam, a partner at the Newcastle office of Begbies Traynor, could not be reached for comment yesterday.
