Nearly 400 workers at one of Northern's Ireland biggest food processing plants were warned today they could lose their jobs.
FarmFed Chickens at Coleraine, Co Derry, confirmed it had started a consultation process with the unions as it could no longer compete in the market because of cheap imports and an escalating cost-base.
The factory employs 380 workers, many of them Polish, and processes an estimated 15 million chickens a year.
Managing director Garth Henry, whose family have been running the company since it was formed 30 years ago, said it was the firm's intention to start a formal consultation process with the workforce about its future.
He said: "Many of the staff work tirelessly in an effort to keep the company competitive in an increasingly difficult marketplace."
FarmFed Chickens supplies poultry products to a number of retail outlets across the United Kingdom and Ireland, including Sainsbury's, Iceland and Kentucky Fried Chicken.
