London, Jan 19 - Administrators of a Findus frozen food factory in the UK said on Friday they had cut 359 jobs.
Administrator Zolfo Cooper said it had made all but 28 of the staff at the plant in north east England redundant after the factory was closed following a fire.
The owner of the factory in North Tyneside, Newcastle Production, which is licensed to produce and market frozen food products sold in the UK under the Findus brand, went into administration in January.
Zolfo Cooper said in a statement on Friday that the level of interest shown by potential purchasers of Newcastle Production had been encouraging and it was confident of selling it.
"However, as a result of a fire on site prior to our appointment as administrators, the facility is currently closed whilst damage and options are assessed," Zolfo Cooper administrator Simon Wilson said.
"Unfortunately this means we have had to make the majority of the workforce formally redundant.
"We are maintaining an open dialogue with all staff, the brand and licence owners, suppliers, and customers of Newcastle Production at this time and are grateful for their support."
Foodvest, which owns the Findus brand and produces Findus products via its frozen food operations in Scandinavia and France, said in a statement issued on Monday that it had no connection with Newcastle Production. It said it was monitoring the situation carefully and would be talking to the receiver.