Reacting to the announcement that Tillery Valley Foods will be closing, Plaid Cymru MS Peredur Owen Griffiths said: “This is devastating news for the town of Abertillery and the surrounding communities.

“The company has been a good employer for decades and it’s loss will be hard to replace. My office has been in contact with people employed and heard that many people walk to work and are without other forms of transport, meaning they will find it difficult to find other work.

“In the Senedd, I called on the Economy Minister to do all he could to try and keep this factory open but, despite months of talks with the company’s owners, it seems those efforts have been in vain.

“I will now be calling on the Welsh Government to do all they can to support the workers affected by this decision and to explore any possibility of maintaining a food manufacturing presence on the site of Tillery Valley Foods.

“The skilled workforce, with decades of experience behind them, is already there. These workers would be assets for any other company that wishes to employ them.”

Peredur added: “There is a wider issue at hand and that is the vulnerability of food production companies in Wales. Tillery Valley Foods are the latest in a spate of factories that have closed in Wales.

“The Government in Wales needs to be doing all it can to support this sector because it has become susceptible to the increased cost of energy and the increased cost of raw materials. Thousands of people are employed in this sector and we can ill afford to lose more jobs.”

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