CONCERNS are growing for workers in Blaenau Gwent after Brexit, rising energy prices and supply chain issues were blamed for the loss of hundreds of local jobs.

The Argus reported last week from Abertillery, where residents and business owners fear for the town’s future following the announcement a major local employer, Tillery Valley Foods (TVF), was closing its factory there.

This week, the county borough was dealt another bitter blow when Avara, another food business, said it was shutting down its operations in nearby Abergavenny.

Although that factory is in Monmouthshire, economy minister Vaughan Gething said it was “a fact that much of the workforce in Avara… comes from Blaenau Gwent”.

In all, some 700 jobs could be on the line: Mr Gething said “440-odd families” were affected at Avara, as well as “approximately 260 families affected” at TVF.

Locals fear the job losses will also have a knock-on effect for the wider economy in the region, telling the Argus footfall in towns like Abertillery has been all but wiped out, thanks to employers and key services pulling out.

Alun Griffiths, the region’s Senedd member (MS), called the two factory announcements “real serious blows to the local economy and to the families sustained by that employment” around the A465 Heads of the Valleys road.

He said ministers “clearly need to invest in that A465 corridor” and welcomed a jobs fair that was due to take in Abertillery on Wednesday.

South Wales Argus: Workers' signs at the entrance to Tillery Valley Foods in Abertillery.Workers' signs at the entrance to Tillery Valley Foods in Abertillery. (Image: Newsquest)

Laura Anne Jones, a regional Conservative MS, added to calls for investment “to improve job opportunities in our region” and to “protect any more businesses from any more future job losses”.

She added: “We can't have a situation where, every week, we stand up in the Senedd and we've got more job losses.”

Mr Gething said the food production industry was “directly affected by a range of factors” including Brexit.

“It's affected by trading conditions, and you'll have heard, in the previous issues on Anglesey, that Two Sisters were clear that the post-Brexit trading environment was part of the reason why they felt that they could not go on,” he said.

South Wales Argus: Food production at an Avara factory.Food production at an Avara factory. (Image: Avara Foods)

The minister also said food factories were facing “a cost-of-living crisis and a cost-of-doing-business crisis”, with Avara noting energy bill hikes were “a significant concern”.

Mr Gething said Welsh Government capital investment “is still available for Avara… because our focus is can we maintain the jobs and can we secure an alternative business on that site”.

Peredur Owen Griffiths, a Plaid Cymru MS from Blaenau Gwent, called for “swift and robust action” to protect jobs in the area.

Mr Gething said the first meeting of a “formal taskforce around TVF took place” on Wednesday morning.