RECEIVERS have been appointed to the £458.8 million-turnover Albert Fisher Group Plc, along with Fisher Foods Ltd, which has a huge factory near York.

But receivers KPMG said today that as yet there were no redundancies among the 280 employed at the 60,000 sq ft premises in Skelton.

The site has been used since the 1980s to produce dressed salads, dips, snack salads and sandwich fillers for the retail and food service, and by the year 2000 contributed a turnover of about £20 million towards the group.

Mick McLoughlin, KPMG corporate recovery partner and joint administrative receiver, said: "We are continuing to trade the business as normal.

Given the strong market position of the company, we are hopeful of concluding a sale of each of the businesses quickly to secure as many jobs as possible."

The 280 at Skelton are among about 3,000 full and part-time staff at nine UK locations.

At the beginning of last year, management at Fisher Foods, Skelton hoped to sell their factory in Skelton Park to developers in order to fund a move into a new, bigger 85,000 sq ft factory elsewhere in the region.

But the scheme fell foul of planners because of the perceived traffic any housing projects might generate on the site, which is outside the village of Skelton and close to the A19.

Updated: 16:50 Thursday, May 23, 2002