THE closure of a luxury food supplier has seen the loss of all the jobs at its distribution centre in Earby.

Silverstar Foods Limited, which employs 484 people nationwide, announced that 457 of its team were to be made redundant.

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All 12 employees at the West Craven Business Park site have been notified of their redundancy, administrators KPMG said.

The food company, which owns the Turners Fine Foods brand, produces luxury deli meats, cheeses and spices for retail and wholesale use.

The business also had centres in Dorset, Goudhurst, Christchurch and Tonbridge in Kent.

After poor trading, the company announced yesterday that an administration company were appointed to help deal with the winding down of the business.

Will Wright, Mark Orton and Colin Haig from KPMG Restructuring will contact creditors and employees of the company.

Mr Wright said: “Following a period of sustained losses and despite the directors’ best efforts to effect a turnaround and sale of the business, the company was unable to continue to trade and the directors took the difficult decision to place it into administration.

“Over the coming days, we will commence an orderly wind-down of the business, and will also be speaking to interested parties with a view to trying to secure a sale of the assets.

“We would encourage anybody who may be interested in acquiring either stock or assets to contact the joint administrators as soon as possible.”

Cllr Rosemary Carroll, who represents Earby on Pendle Council, said job losses of any scale were a big shock.

She said: “This is a very sad day for Earby. Nationally, 12 jobs does not sound like a lot but for a small community like Earby it’s a very high number.

“You have to think that there could potentially be 12 families now that have just lost a portion of their income. It’s sad to see another business has gone from West Craven Business Park.”