THE 2,500 staff employed at a meat factory in North Yorkshire have received reassurances their jobs are safe, it emerged last night.

Workers at the Malton Bacon Factory, in Malton, near York, had been concerned about their jobs after factory owners Grampian Country Foods announced the closure of its factory at Rotherham, together with another in the North-East of Scotland.

The Leeds-based company's chairman Fred Duncan had sparked fears after saying further plant closures would take place because of difficult market conditions.

He said Grampian needed to cut costs and become a low cost operation because of intense competition, leading to speculation that the 50-year-old Malton factory was under threat. Mr Duncan, who founded the business in Banff, Scotland in 1980, was reported as saying that further job cuts would be inevitable, adding that the UK's market for meat products had changed in recent months as retailers had increased the amount of meat they import from overseas.

But Grampian head of communications Alistair Cox said the Malton factory was safe.

"It is a significant element in our development plans," he said.

"Grampian needs to be efficient to survive in this very competitive industry. Competition is very fierce."

He said that Grampian regarded the Malton operation as very efficient.

Earlier reports that the factory's future was in doubt had caused considerable concern among the workforce and Mr Cox said he was happy to give reassurances to them.

Grampian blamed a lack of demand for processed chicken foods, such as burgers and nuggets, for the closure of the Rotherham factory.

As well as its headquarters in Leeds and Rotherham and Malton factories, Grampian runs plants in Osset in West Yorkshire and Thorne, near Doncaster, where it has a transport and logistics division.

Grampian has been hit by strikes at several of its plants in a row over pensions.

Earlier this month, it was announced that the firm's chief executive, David Salkeld, was leaving the company.

He moved Grampian's headquarters from Aberdeen to Leeds and helped to take turnover to more than £1.5bn.

Grampian has more than 25,000 workers at more than 50 food production plants in the UK, Netherlands, Portugal and Thailand.