DONEGAL’S famous Oatfield sweets will be produced in the UK from next month, creating new jobs over there, the owners have boasted.
And the owners of the Oatfield brand – which had a turnover of €20M last year – is now turning over its remaining workers in Letterkenny.
They have been offered just TWO WEEKS redundancy for each year worked with the sweet factory – one week less than colleagues who left in recent years.
This week the remaining staff posed for poignant pictures as the last Emeralds rolled off the production line.
Plant owners Donegal Creameries and operators Zed Candy will share in a €5M windfall by selling the site in Letterkenny to German supermarket giant Lidl.
Zed Candy boss Garry Lawlor boasted to journalists in Kettering, England, that his company would be investing in its plant there.
And he promised new jobs in the town – although the final number wasn’t announced.
As politicians here mourn the demise of Oatfield’s after 85 years, politicians over there are delighted.
The leader of East Northamptonshire Council Steve North enthused: “We wish Zed Candy sweet success in the future.
“We are always pleased when a business comes here and creates new jobs.”
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