The company had announced last February that the move, which resulted in 20 redundancies at its Denny Meats plant in Tralee, was down to restructuring.

However, the Sunday Tribune understands that the decision was made after the chain threatened to terminate its contract with Kerry unless production was moved. Informed sources said such a move would have resulted in the loss of hundreds of jobs at the group.

The group's director of corporate affairs Frank Hayes said the group had switched production after a request from a major customer. "It was a very small part of their total business with us and they wanted it to be moved closer to their marketplace to make things more cost effective for them, " he said.

He refused to name the supermarket involved or reveal any of the plant's clients, stating that "we don't discuss our commercial relationships".

Sources close to the Kerry Group said that the plant's two main customers are Tesco and ASDA. Both companies have said, however, that they were not the chain involved.

Hayes downplayed the significance of the move, stating that the Tralee plant was a small part of its overall business. "We supply many supermarkets in the UK and we have grown our relationship significantly in recent years."

However, SIPTU, the union that represents workers at the Tralee plant said that it was major symbolic blow for the company. "The Denny plant has been in existence for over 100 years. The Denny name was built out of this plant, " said Ted Kenny, the union's organiser in Tralee.

He said that he was concerned that further jobs could be lost at the group and in other food industries throughout the country due to future similar costcutting decisions by large British supermarkets.

"The Kerry Group is caught in this situation:

either the supermarket will get their goods off Kerry or they will get them elsewhere. If Kerry had refused to downsize in Tralee, there would have been major jobs losses in their British factories, " he said.