Fears are growing for the future of around 80 staff at a Lurgan-based water bottling company after the discovery of contaminated water has forced it into sudden administration.
Classic Mineral Water, founded in 1948 by the late James McKee and Ireland’s oldest water bottling company, confirmed on Tuesday that financial losses had “forced directors to enter an insolvency administration process”.
It manufactures a range of drink products, supplying the likes of Lidl, Dunnes, Tesco, Aldi, Musgraves and Bestways, and it is one of only two firms in the north and four on the island to hold mineral water status.
But it has emerged that contamination was found as part of “continuous testing”, and in August Ireland’s Food Safety Authority recalled various water products from shelves in the Republic.
Just weeks earlier in July, Stormont economy minister Conor Murphy and recently-appointed Invest NI chief executive Kieran Donoghue had visited the firm’s Lurgan site for a familiarisation tour.
The company sources its water from four borewells on its site, which it says delivers over 100,000 litres of water every hour, and it is understood Classic is blaming the contamination on “third-party sources”.
In early August it said had “stopped production immediately to undertake a borewell cleaning programme” to attempt to resolve the issue.
The company - whose principal directors are Liam Duffy (51) and Gerard Watters (52) - has not confirmed as yet what the likely impact on the administration process will have on its 81 permanent staff and also its supply chain.
Classic Mineral Water has been on a major growth trajectory in recent years, enjoying a five-fold increase in sales to £11.2 million.
It’s most recent set of filed accounts show that last year it swung from a pre-tax loss of £421,000 into a £304,000 profit.
In May 2023 it announced a £3.4 million expansion, creating 16 jobs, when it revealed it it developing a third bottling line to enable the production of isotonic beverages for the private label market for the first time on the island of Ireland.
At the time of that Invest NI-backed investment, owner and chief executive Liam Duffy said: “We are confident this will push our overall sales up significantly, reaching over £20m by 2024, and vastly increase our productivity.”