NATIONAL Meats and Foods principal, David Phillips was tight-lipped yesterday about what led to his firm shutting its doors to hundreds of workers last week.

But Phillips, in an interview with the Business Observer, acknowledged that the current economic climate had been difficult for his, among other businesses.

Last Friday, the Lydford, St Ann, importer and distributor of meats and foods reportedly issued some 200 permanent, casual, and contract employees redundancy letters and cheques.

This followed weeks of speculation that the company had been crippled by severe cash flow problems and had been hounded by a throng of creditors.

“I have had many situations where business associates owe me arrears in payments, running sometimes for many months as well,” said Phillips. “So the point is not every company, at this time, has payables that are current,” he added.

National Meats and Foods sells over $1 billion worth of meats and foods each year and has one of the most modern food storage facilities in the Caribbean. It is one of the island’s largest distributors of meats to wholesalers and the hotel industry, and also has links with thousands of local farmers which supply it with agricultural produce.

However, industry insiders say the firm has encountered severe financial problems in recent times and has found itself in trouble to service the debt it used to finance a massive capital expenditure programme.

Phillips did not directly address questions on the company’s financials, only stating that a press release would be issued today.

“The thing is that we are still in operations but a lot of people are painting a different picture,” he said, adding “but you know the truth is anybody can report anything they want but not everybody wants to report the truth and different people have ulterior motives.”

The National Meats and Foods founder and owner also did not directly address questions relating to the company’s redundancy excercise, but dismissed reports that his non-unionised employees were largely upset and unhappy with the situation.

“When there is a dissatisfaction, people will report it to the Ministry of Labour. We haven’t had any calls from the Ministry as to anybody reporting any unfair dealings,” he said.

Radio Jamaica reported that the Ministry of Labour will conduct a probe into the redundancy programme.