Gallaghers Bakery under threat?

hairyprincess

There is a staff meeting at 3pm today, RTE cameracrew are set up outside.

190 jobs at risk, where are our local representatives? :mad:

http://www.highlandradio.com/2011/01/26/fears-for-the-future-of-gallaghers-bakery-in-ardara/

Carrickman

I was just about to post this, this would be a major blow yet again to the South West, relocate the jobs to Dublin? (then their will be an announcement of major job creation in Dublin in the news I'm sure) and feck the north west if this happens or is allowed to happen heads should roll!

henke

The word goin around Ardara this last few days was that the bakery is closing and now this announcement so it certainly doesn't look good.

This will be a big problem locally as lot of staff there wouldn't have other qualifications and joined after leaving school so the dole queue will prob be growing.

creaghadoos

i heard this talked about in the middle of last year,

homer simpson

It's a pretty sad state of affairs if the jobs are lost... did they not announce a while back that they were creating jobs

henke

I have just heard on i102-104 that either 124 or 129 (not sure now what they said) jobs have been lost. That is out of 190. Not good at all.

henke

124 jobs to go.
http://www.rte.ie/news/2011/0126/jobs-business.html

Durnish

Oh dear.

Carrickman

Sad news indeed one of the last big employers in the south west area gone (well most of it gone) just like the fishing and knitwear industry

sligopark

Isn't this the same area the tanaiste comes from - it appears she has forgotten that the area needs jobs...

ednwireland

sligopark wrote: »

Isn't this the same area the tanaiste comes from - it appears she has forgotten that the area needs jobs...

i'd eat my hat if she ever thought about anything apart from herself,
she's done very little for sw donegal

NIMAN

Very sad news for the area.

Thing that also annoyed me about this. Watching the RTE news at 601, it was way down the running order. Typical that they couldn't care any less about Donegal.

If a Dublin workplace had closed today or announced 125 jobs lost it would have been No2 article after the FF leadership battle.

lulubenny

This is awful news for the ppl of this area. My heart goes out to all the workers who are to loose their jobs and the knockon effect of this closure will be huge (local businesses, emmigration). 120 jobs gone (and possibly another 40 unless a buyer for the fresh bread section is found) just to save jobs in Dublin. It makes me mad. Our wee town will never recover from this.

cosanostra

This is devestating news for ardara allot of families working in there i think udaras na gealtachta should be held to account here there always there to hand out millions in grants but they should communicate with the factory owners these jobs are going to dublin so its obviously transporting goods was a problem surely something could have been done to come over this!

Also will the machinery be tranfered to dublin now after udaras grant aiding it to create employment in the gealtacht

Durnish

So, Gallaghers was making the CDF stuff, the rolls and baguettes on sale in every retail outlet in the Ardara area? Were they the nationwide operators for it as well? If so, it is hardly surprising that transport costs have been the undoing of it all. It defies commonsense, surely, to have a nationwide operation involving regular delivery based up a mountain pass in coastal Donegal. What happened in the snow and ice of the last two winters when Donegal was frozen?
Will Ardara lose its wee local bakery, old Gallaghers on the way to the laundry, over the head of this?

creaghadoos

CDF products are all delivered frozen which makes distribution from even a remote centre a lot easier.

i would put money on Brennans buying gallaghers, as they have been trying to break into donegal for years

Voltex

CDF bought the business about 6 years ago, and from the day they signed the dotted line the count down timer on Gallaghers was set.

I remember looking at CDFs operation in Grange castle when they had just started up there and thinking that Gallaghers wouldnt last 2 years.
There is so much capacity in CDF. The freezer there holds 15,000 pallets of frozen bread.
Anyway, Declan Gallagher couldnt give a **** e. He got millions for the business and even got a mega bonus last year sure the talk of the trade was that he was counting down the days till he could get the hell outa the bakery biz.

creaghadoos

the people at IAWS seem to have a very short memory.

its not 10 years since all of their jobs were at risk and they were going under, when a director put in some of his own cash to bring french bread to ireland as a last gasp effort.

he is now on the rich list

i may be corrected on all of this but i read it somewhere

hairyprincess

creaghadoos wrote: »

the people at IAWS seem to have a very short memory.

its not 10 years since all of their jobs were at risk and they were going under, when a director put in some of his own cash to bring french bread to ireland as a last gasp effort.

he is now on the rich list

i may be corrected on all of this but i read it somewhere

Pardon the pun but, eaten bread is soon forgotten

bluescaster

voltex dont think you can blame declan. he doesn't owe Ardara or Donegal for that matter anything. i work there and i don't know if i'll have a job shortly but i'm not blaming declan. it's the muppets in dublin that never gave a toss from day 1

hairyprincess

bluescaster wrote: »

voltex dont think you can blame declan. he doesn't owe Ardara or Donegal for that matter anything. i work there and i don't know if i'll have a job shortly but i'm not blaming declan. it's the muppets in dublin that never gave a toss from day 1

Bluecaster don't think that for one minute Declan has your best interests at heart. You should be blaming him, he knew rightly that this day would come when he sold the bakery. Sure he won't even let the workers have union representation! The blame is firmly laid at his door.

I do hope and pray the fresh end will be saved but I'm not holding out much hope, please God I'll be wrong

bluescaster

hairyprincess it was sold while Frank was alive fact.i probably would have done the same thing at the time myself, however the whole situation has been handled terribly as nobody knows who's staying or who's going

cosanostra

If the fresh bread line wasnt viable on its own and gallaghers were relying on CDF products to survive then whos going to buy the fresh bread section as a viable venture. The only likelyhood is that a competitor buys it to claim market share in which case no jobs will be saved.

Glenman

hairyprincess wrote: »

Bluecaster don't think that for one minute Declan has your best interests at heart. You should be blaming him, he knew rightly that this day would come when he sold the bakery. Sure he won't even let the workers have union representation! The blame is firmly laid at his door.

I do hope and pray the fresh end will be saved but I'm not holding out much hope, please God I'll be wrong

Don't be too harsh on Declan, he is doing his best for Ardara! He is buying back the bakery and hoping to safe about 50 jobs. With all the publicity surrounding this its a good time to get local supermakets to support Gallaghers fresh bread. He has secured the contract to make the fresh bread for Tesco in Letterkenny.

North_West_Art

all is needed now is to get local people to buy Gallagher's bread when they go to Tescos, maybe some sort of advertising push to encourage buying local. Such a campaign could benefit a lot of local businesses.

hairyprincess

Glenman wrote: »

Don't be too harsh on Declan, he is doing his best for Ardara! He is buying back the bakery and hoping to safe about 50 jobs. With all the publicity surrounding this its a good time to get local supermakets to support Gallaghers fresh bread. He has secured the contract to make the fresh bread for Tesco in Letterkenny.

Not so sure where you got the info that Declan is buying back the bakery, I have heard that another bread company is buying it, (in which case the jobs will be lost) but I suppose there will be lots of speculation.

The problem is the competition with the Aldis and Lidls is fierce. I have bought beautiful sliced pans in Aldi for half the price of a Gallaghers (or any other leading brand) loaf. It's sad but I don't see how they could possibly compete.

Durnish

but you have to drive to L'kenny for Aldi and Lidl.

It is curious, but I always thought that CDF stuff was more of a luxury/spur of the moment purchase and now it has killed off the hand that baked it.

muffler

Up to 50 jobs are to be retained which is something I suppose - LINK