Kerry Group has announced it will close its Kerry Foods factory in the UK town of Burton-on-Trent, which is in the midlands of England and not far from Birmingham. The move will lead to the loss of 900 jobs.

Kerry Foods manufactures prepared foods and ready meals at the plant. Production there will cease later this year. Kerry is closing the plant after it lost a key contract supplying Indian and oriental ready meals to UK supermarket giant Tesco in August last year.

It’s understood the Tesco contract accounted for over 75% of production at the plant.

The Kerry Foods plant had supplied Tesco with ready meals for almost 20 years before the retailer switched to a new supplier. In recent years, Kerry has invested up to £20m (€22m) in its Burton facility.

With a significant proportion of its revenues generated in the UK market, Kerry Group is one of the most exposed Irish food companies to Brexit. Kerry has spent up to €30m realigning the structure of its UK business in the last two years in a bid to mitigate the impact when Brexit takes place. The company has divided its consumer foods business in the UK down the middle into two units – private label and branded.

Despite the challenges of Brexit, Kerry Group recently reiterated its profit forecast for its 2019 financial year that adjusted earnings will grow by 6% to 10%.