JOBS have been shed at Malton Bacon Factory under its new ownership, according to union sources.

John Radigan, an USDAW (Union of Shop Distributive and Allied Workers) representative, confirmed that redundancies among engineering staff were being made.

He has received redundancy papers and will be travelling to Malton tomorrow to meet with senior stewards.

He could not speculate on the number of job losses at the plant.

Grampian Country Foods Group, the new owners of Malton Foods, refused to confirm or deny the cuts.

Rumours are rife that almost 50 engineering, hygiene and quality assurance jobs have been lost.

However the losses will not affect the vast majority of the 2,200 staff at the pig-processing factory.

A spokesperson for Grampian Country Foods Group said: "We are speaking to the people concerned directly rather than have it in the public domain.

"There has been some reorganisation of the management is all we can say at this stage.

"It is not the general workforce that has been affected.

"It is still pretty much business as usual as we get very busy leading up to Christmas."

The spokesperson also stamped on rumours that larger cuts may be made after the busy Christmas trading.

"I am not sure what is causing all this rumour," he said.

"We are trying to turn the business around and make it profitable and this causes a lot of unrest among the workforce."

Last month Grampian Country Foods Group bought Malton Foods from its owners Uniq for £33.5m.

Updated: 08:26 Wednesday, November 14, 2001