A specialist meat firm has closed its game production operation in Yorkshire and relocated it to a recently upgraded facility closer to home.
Gressingham, which runs a large duck meat business from its headquarters in Debach, near Woodbridge, is moving Gressingham Game to its already sizeable north Suffolk operation at Redgrave.
The family-owned food business, which is run by brothers Geoff and William Buchanan, bought the Yorkshire Game site in Brompton on Swale out of administration in May 2018.
MORE - Are you game for a wild boar burger? Suffolk food firm puts unusual meats on Asda BBQ menuAlthough it enjoyed a successful first season, the firm has decided to move production of core lines from Brompton to its Gressingham Foods production site at Grange Farm Redgrave with immediate effect in order to improve efficiency.
The Yorkshire operation employed 12 permanent staff at the Yorkshire site, 10 of which are understood to have found new roles locally.
"The Gressingham Game business has been readily accommodated in to Gressingham's Redgrave operation which employs 350 people and will benefit from the wider range of support available to it as a result," a company spokesman said.
"This year the Redgrave site benefited from further investment in high quality workspace for office staff, and new product development kitchens to add to the extensive £5m, 53,600sq ft chilled distribution centre on site that was opened in January 2017."
The company put the move down to the "complexity and logistical challenges" of its suppliers and customer base combined with the "highly seasonal nature" of the business.
The separate site had proven too inefficient in a highly competitive marketplace to make it commercially viable, it said.
However, Gressingham Game will continue to operate and trade from the north Suffolk site, with a focus on its core established products, which include wild boar burgers and venison steaks and burgers.
In the autumn, the company plans to launch diced venison for casseroles, and its new product development team is working on other products, including a range of Christmas joints and sous vide (vacuum sealed) meats.
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