Red Lea Chickens has announced it will wind down its poultry processing operation after 60 years of being in business.
The company's processing plant, which underwent a $20 million upgrade in 2011, employs over 500 employees in the Sydney suburb of Blacktown, with staff reportedly informed via email over Easter that their jobs were gone.
Red Lea Chicken also operates a number of retail stores, and employees in six company-owned stores have also lost their jobs, while the franchisee network of 22 stores will continue to trade, according to ABC News.
The company and related entities entered voluntary administration late last month, but due to its financial position, was unable to trade its way out of trouble, according to the company.
“Due to the financial position of the companies, we regret to advise that the Administrators are unable to trade the business and have no alternative other than to undertake an orderly wind-down of operations,” the company said in a statement on its website.
“Further information will be provided to creditors and suppliers in the coming days.”
Red Lea Chickens started out sixty years ago selling fresh poultry products door to door. In recent years, it sold fresh and cooked chickens through its retail stores, as well as to restaurants, supermarkets, hotels, clubs and specialty butchers.
Founder John Velcich sold the company to PT Royal Industries Indonesia in 2016 at the age of eighty, saying he'd battled for years to compete with the major supermarkets.
