Tag Archives: Kepak

CLARE IFA officers are planning to seek a meeting with Kepak representatives amid growing concern about whether their meat factory in Drumquin will re-open following its closure on February 14. IFA chairman, Tom Lane told the Clare Champion officers were keen to meet Kepak executives to question them about their future plans for the plant. Mr Lane said Kepak had some contracts with local beef finishers, which it was honouring by slaughtering their animals outside the county. “I would like to see Kepak re-open in Drumquin,” he said. Clare Beef Plan chairman, Joe Woulfe has expressed concern about the long delay in re-opening Kepak’s Drumquin plant. Mr Woulfe is worried that Kepak’s Clare plant may not re-open and has been informed that some equipment may have been transferred off site. He said management should have sat down with local farming representatives to work out a future for the plant. Last February, Kepak staff were told two days before its closure …

IN a statement issued to The Clare Champion on Tuesday evening, (September 17) Kepak Group confirmed that it has indefinitely postponed a €6.5m investment at its site in Drumquin as a direct result of the “ongoing illegal blockades” and that it has laid off all of it’s 48 employees in Clare and 1,400 nation-wide. “Kepak Clare has to date been the most severely affected of Kepak’s sites by the Beef Plan Movement’s illegal blockades, with all processing suspended there effectively since August 2,” the statement claimed. “Kepak is immensely grateful for the support of its loyal staff, customers and farmer suppliers who have been harshly impacted by the protesters many of whom are not known as suppliers to Kepak Clare. Kepak have now laid off 1,400 people including all staff at Kepak Clare. Kepak is endeavouring to provide our colleagues with every support and assistance during this difficult time,” the statement added. Thursday’s print edition of The Clare Champion will …

PROTESTS are continuing at the Kepak plant in Tiermaclane this afternoon, despite agreement being reached that the Beef Plan Movement and Meat Industry Ireland enter into talks on Monday. The Tiermaclane protest is no longer being run by Beef Plan, and when the Clare Champion visited the site this afternoon, there were still a number of demonstrators there, while the gates of the plant are locked. Joseph Woulfe is Chair of the Beef Plan movement in the county, but at the site today, he said that Beef Plan are no longer co-ordinating the protest. “People are coming who aren’t members of anything, they’re just coming to air what’s going on with them.” While there are reports today that meetings aimed at resolving the situation will take place on Monday, Mr Woulfe said he has very little information as yet. “I had a message on the phone, saying to stand down and we’re talking to Creed and this kind of thing. …

FARMER and former TD Michael McNamara is supportive of the Beef Plan protests and is holding back his own cattle. “I have cattle that are fit to kill and I’m not moving them. I’m going to hold them until this strike is over, one way or another. Whether they are under 30 months or over 30 months, I’m going to hold them,” he said. He expects things could become even more tense at the front lines of the protest, as he predicts that the “big companies will do everything they can to break the strike”. Mr McNamara slammed the Competition Authority for not looking closely at what is happening in the beef industry. “The only investigation the Competition Authority in Ireland has carried out in relation to price fixing was that they raided the IFA offices. The Competition Authority in Ireland is a joke and I’m happy to be on the record to say they are a joke. They’re like …

Scenes from the Beef Plan protest outside the Kepak premises in Tiermaclane.   [embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WqLcMdMFZk[/embedyt]

THERE were dramatic scenes at the Kepak plant in Drumquin this evening, as farmers from the Beef Plan movement in Clare delayed trucks from entering and leaving. Gardai were summoned to the site as emotions ran very high at certain times. When the Clare Champion arrived this afternoon a group of about 20 farmers were walking in circular formation at the front gate to the plant, preventing two trucks from leaving, while another truck was waiting to enter, just up the road. While the truck driver attempted to inch forward whenever gaps in the circle of protestors emerged, there was no way he could get out, until the farmers finally opted to relent and allow him to leave. However at this point there was an attempt to get the second truck past the protestors, something that inflamed the crowd, and they succeeded in stopping that truck from exiting. Shortly afterwards Gardai arrived on the scene, and they sought to speak …