“BASICALLY EVERYTHING" has been lost after a serious fire at a yogurt manufacturing facility in Co Offaly, the site's director has said.
At 11 o’clock this morning the factory’s fire alarm began to ring and all 50 staff were evacuated from the Glenisk organic yogurt manufacturing factory at Killeigh, Tullamore.
Speaking at what remains of the plant this afternoon, Glenisk director Gerard Cleary said "basically everything" had been lost in the flames, according to RTE.
"It's devastating for all of us really at this point in time and we don't really know what to say," said Mr Cleary.
"We'll just have to see what we have and what we can salvage and then just start again. That's all we can do."
Acknowledging that it could have been worse, Mr Cleary was relieved that the plant's safety and emergency plans worked effectively and there was fortunately no loss of life.
"We're just grateful to all the services, the fire brigade and the ambulance. Luckily no one was injured in any way so we're very thankful for that."
He said that the cause of the blaze had not yet been identified, but the manufacturing plant and stocks had been destroyed.
"Anything that gets us to get a pot of yogurt to the supermarket shelf, that's all gone at the moment. But we're resilient, we'll fight back," he added.
There may be some smoke damage to buildings not directly affected by the fire.
Founded by the Cleary family in 1987, Glensick has since become one of the country's leading organic brands.
