The managing director of the Co Longford petfood factory badly damaged by fire yesterday said last night that it was "too early to say" whether the company would reopen at full capacity.
This was because of the uncertainty over what would happen to its contracts to supply supermarket chains in Ireland and the UK, Philip Reynolds said.
More than 450 staff at the factory have been called to meetings today at a local hotel to discuss temporary lay-off arrangements.
No-one was injured in the fire at C&D Foods near Edgeworthstown. The firm was started by former taoiseach Albert Reynolds, and is still owned by his family. The company last night warned that the damage was worse than initially feared.
"As we are this evening, we are out of business. We are going to be out of business for a significant period of time," said Mr Reynolds, who has been managing director of the company since his father became taoiseach in 1992.
The company makes "own-label" pet food for supermarket chains such as Dunnes Stores, Tesco, Aldi, Sainsbury and Asda.
The board of C&D Foods, which is chaired by former KPMG managing partner and former Telecom Éireann chairman Ron Bolger, will meet on Friday to discuss the situation.
The fire destroyed the plant's cannery, which represents about 80 per cent of the production line. The remaining 20 per cent is of little use as it depended on the part which was destroyed.
Mr Reynolds said the uncertainty about the firm's contracts with its supermarket customers was a bigger issue for the company than the task of raising the €25 million that would be needed to rebuild the plant.
"I hope that 37 years of, in many cases, unbroken service will stand us in good stead but I can't expect that the space we hold will be left vacant," he said.
He said it would be "very presumptuous" to say that the com-pany's customers would be loyal and would revert to C&D Foods if it rebuilt its plant.
He said the company could not buy equipment off-the-shelf, so bespoke equipment would have to be ordered. The lead-in time for an order for equipment was between six and nine months.
As workers gathered outside the factory in the rain yesterday Mr Reynolds said the fire, which was still smouldering behind him, had probably started in a cold store behind the premises. The situation was "about as bad as it could be", he said.
The fire, which started at 11pm on Sunday, was brought under control shortly after 3am yesterday. "We had 32 employees plus one security person on site at the time, all of whom followed our fire drill procedures and thankfully evacuated the plant in a timely manner," Mr Reynolds said. He did not know what caused the fire but described it as a "tragic accident". Gardaí are investigating the fire.
C&D Foods has grown rapidly in recent years and it is the largest employer in the area. Some staff have been with the company since it started in 1969. Up to four members of some families are on its staff.
With annualised sales of €100 million at the end of last year, C&D Foods was the biggest supplier of own-label pet foods in Ireland and Britain.
Philip Reynolds owns 90 per cent of C&D Foods and his brother Albert owns 10 per cent.
Longford Chamber of Commerce said up to 50 other businesses in the locality could be directly or indirectly affected by the fire.