The Nueva Rumasa group, owners of the Quesería Menorquina plant on the Maó industrial estate, appears to be having financial problems, with a total debt amounting to 700 million euros, although the family claims that it is still owed 18,000 million euros by the State for the expropriation of the old Rumasa company 28 years ago.
Production at the Menorcan plant has been halted for the last two weeks due to a lack of raw materials which have not been delivered because the company owes the suppliers. In addition, Nueva Rumasa has deferred payments due to Seguridad Social and still owes the workforce their January pay and December overtime.
After claiming last week that its problems were "surmountable" the news came on Thursday that Nueva Rumasa had called for a preliminary meeting of creditors in respect of Quesería Menorquina and nine other companies in the group. According to the Ruiz-Mateos family, this was in order to "restructure" the group and "guarantee its future viability". The company now has a period of four months in which to present a viability plan.
The workers at the plant in Maó are considering various actions including legal and civil as well as work-related. They are also demanding that the Ruiz Mateos family immediately transfer the 15 million euro mortage on the Maó premises to another of the group's properties in order to help the situation at the former Kraft site. Other demands are that Nueva Rumasa cease to run the factory and that production restarts immediately in order to prevent loss of customers through non-delivery.
This week the Balearic Government is due to meet union representatives to tackle the current situation.
Between them the ten companies involved employ 4,100 workers, of whom 189 work at the Maó factory which, should it close, would also affect dairy farmers and other sectors.