Bidder offers new hope for staff at Hall’s jobs

A FINANCE firm which made an offer for the Hall’s of Broxburn meat processing plant today claimed the factory could be kept open despite the announcement by owner Vion that it will close with the loss of 1700 jobs,

Private equity firm Graf Capital was one of three bidders for the famous factory, but Dutch-based Vion said on Friday it had been “unable to identify any viable alternative to the closure of the plant”.

However, Graf managing director Steve Green said his firm had spent four weeks examining the books with a view to taking over Hall’s as a going concern.

He said: “I am keen to reassure the staff that there is a credible bid to save the business. We believe it can be taken over by us within 14 days.”