Chilled ready meals manufacturer Oscar Mayer has entered a consultancy with its employees, proposing 135 staff redundancies.

The manufacturer supplies supermarkets across the UK, producing chilled ready meals and prepared foods under brands such as The Gym Kitchen, Gino D’Acampo and Treat ‘N’ Eat.

Should the proposals go ahead, the redundancies will be made at its Wrexham site. However, Oscar Mayer said that that while 135 colleagues may be made redundant, the company will also open up 101 vacancies.

Oscar Mayer said that if those affected by the redundancies were to apply for the 101 vacancies, the total number of proposed redundancies would be reduced to circa 34 people.

Ian Toal, chief executive of Oscar Mayer, said: “These proposals are not made lightly, but we believe are necessary to ensure a long-term sustainable future for our business.

“The UK chilled foods sector remains highly competitive. For us to continue to compete and grow we have to take steps to become more efficient so that we can deliver on our strategy to innovate, expand the market and meet the changing demands of consumers and our customers.

“We don’t underestimate the impact of this announcement on our much-valued, hard-working team in Wrexham and will provide them with all the support that we can, including offering alternative roles at our Wrexham and Flint sites, should these plans proceed as currently proposed.”

This comes a year after Oscar Mayer informed its staff of its intention to enter into consultation with its employees over the proposed transfer of products from its Flint site to its Wrexham site.