The meat company Artigas Alimentaria, in bankruptcy proceedings since last September, is finalizing the sale of the production unit to its competitor Agotzaina.
According to sources close to the case, this Navarra firm is the only one interested in acquiring the assets of the Girona company, born in Cornellà del Terri in 1957. But five creditors – mainly suppliers – do not agree with Agotzaina's offer and this Week they have presented allegations asking the judge to rule out the operation and authorize the sale of the assets in batches. They are valued at around 14 million euros and among them are the facilities, machinery, land and a slaughterhouse. These suppliers consider that if the assets are sold separately (instead of the production unit sold together) they will have a better chance of recovering the money.
The debt amounts to 20.4 million and is in the hands of 170 creditors, among which there are financial entities and suppliers. In addition, Artigas workers are also considering presenting allegations (the judge has approved an extension until January 9). Agotzaina's offer contemplates preserving 30 jobs out of the 167 in total, and the works council considers this figure too low. Currently, the staff is in an ERTE situation since Artigas paralyzed the activity last July as it was unable to face the rise in the price of pork without passing on the increase in costs to its clients.
“The company does not have a problem of results, but of treasury. He has not known how to manage the change in the upward cycle in the price of pork,” they comment. In fact, these sources assure that Artigas had a turnover of 100.3 million euros last year, 9% more than the previous year, and that the losses were 107,000 euros. However, the business will suffer from this year's paralysis. The turnover will fall to 43 million, these sources calculate.
Given this situation, the commercial court number 2 of Girona will decide at the beginning of next year the future of this historic family business. With the capacity to slaughter 1,200 animals every day, Artigas has worked for decades for supermarkets and large stores selling boneless pork, beef and beef as well as processed and filleted products.
