The meat supplier Russell Hume has fallen into administration after being investigated by the Food Standards Agency.
The collapse of the company will lead to at least 270 job losses from sites including Liverpool, Birmingham, London and Derby.
After an inspection by the Food Standards Agency (FSA), Russell Hume was suspended after “serious non-compliance with food hygiene regulations” were found in the surprise inspection in Birmingham.
“The recent product recall and halt in operations has caused significant customer attrition and trading difficulties, which in turn has led the directors to take the decision to place the company into administration,” said Chris Pole, a partner at KPMG and a Russell Hume administrator.
“Regrettably, with little prospect of production restarting on site, a total of 266 people have been made redundant. Our priority over the coming days will be to work with all affected employees to provide the assistance they need in claiming monies owed from the redundancy payments office.
“We will also be seeking buyers for the business and its assets.”
Russell Hume, who supplied meat to Jamie Oliver’s Italian restaurant chain and Wetherspoon as well as many other major restaurants and pub groups, said they are working with the FSA over the issues but added: “We still feel its action has been out of all proportion to the concerns it says it has identified.”
“The fact that its investigations have become industry-wide and a number of other firms have also had issues strongly suggests there is a lack of clarity in the industry and in current FSA guidelines.
“Prior to this, we had a long, unblemished record for supplying quality meat products.”
Earlier this month, the FSA announced a nationwide review of all meat cutting plants following incidents at Russell Hume and 2 Sisters. The FSA is cracking down on meat plants following criticism by a committee of MPs for failing to take “definite action”.