SINGAPORE Food Industries (SFI) has announced that its Ireland-based subsidiary, ready meals company Swissco, has been placed into liquidation.

The move, amid some industrial unrest at Swissco, follows unsucessful attempts to find new investors for the embattled firm and to strike a deal with creditors, SFI announced on Wednesday.

Irish media outlets Belfast Telegraph, RTE News and irishtimes.com reported that 127 angry workers at the Swissco plant in Little Island, Cork, held a 12 hour sit-in at the plant on Tuesday, in protest at the closure and what they claimed was a lack of information on finances.

The majority of workers had been with the company for more than 10 years and 20 of them had been employed since it opened in 1974.

The sit-in ended only after the Services, Industrial, Professional and Technical Union (Siptu), which represents over 200,000 Irish workers, received assurances from the liquidator that workers would be paid any outstanding wages.

In a Siptu news release, Siptu sectoral organiser Alan O'Leary said: 'The decision to close this company through a liquidation was a devastating blow to the 150 strong workforce, many of whom now face the prospect of a very uncomfortable Christmas and an uncertain employment future in 2009.

'The workers feel abandoned, left high and dry by an unsympathetic employer, and Siptu will be campaigning vigorously to obtain a fair deal for these workers'.

Mr O'Leary will be seeking the support of Ireland's Minister for Foreign Affairs Miche�l Martin and Minister of State for Labour Billy Kelleher, in obtaining retraining and new employment for the workers.

SFI's European arm, International Cuisine had already warned last September that the company was no longer profitable and that it would close if a buyer were not found.

SFI announced on Nov 21 that a petition had been submitted by Cresset on Nov 20 to the High Court in Dublin, to place Swissco into examinership.

Swissco is Cresset's subsidiary, and Cresset is wholly-owned by SFI through International Cuisine.

On Dec 2, the High Court approved the petition to place Swissco into examinership, a process whereby the protection of the court is obtained to assist in attempts to keep a company afloat.

After that, the appointed Examiner, Mr David Carson of financial advisory Deloitte and Touche, made efforts to identify a new investor for Swissco's business, which was not successful.

To make matters worse, due to the uncertainty about the future of Swissco's business, several customers notified Swissco of their intention to move all or part of their business elsewhere, and Swissco continued to face issues with supply and price of raw materials.

Given this, the Examiner reported to the High Court that there was no longer a viable prospect of securing the future of the company's business.

On Monday, the High Court placed Swissco into liquidation, and the company confirmed that all 154 of its staff had been made redundant.