OVER 120 workers are still in limbo at Taghmon’s Irish Pride plant as news of a prospective buyer for the company has yet to surface though there have been some indications of an imminent sale.

Declan Taite and Pearse Farrell of Duff & Phelps were appointed as joint receivers to the company just over two weeks ago but the company’s debts have since been bought by a California-based private equity firm which is the main body behind Britain’s Hovis company.

Kieran Wallace of KPMG has thus been appointed as receiver. Any bids for the sale of the company were due in on June 15 and they are now being handled by KPMG, it is understood.

The plants in Taghmon and Ballinrobe have been trading as normal since the announcing of the receivership and hopes were high in the local village that a buyer would be found for what is the second largest bakery in Ireland.

Former Co. Councillor Pat Codd, who is from Taghmon, said that while there was very little information to be got on the future of the plant, it did seem that the future for it looked bright with a number of parties interested in the company.

He said: “The people in the plant are working away, the same as they always have.”

It is understood that the Wexford plant is newer and capable of faster production than its counterpart in Mayo and Mr. Codd confirmed that a lot of work had been done on the plant in recent years.

According to a Mayo newspaper, workers there fear that production in the Ballinrobe plant could be transferred to Wexford for this reason.