Sandwich factory workers will be recruited from Hungary

The company behind a multimillion-pound sandwich factory has said it will have to go abroad to find new employees.

Greencore Group's £35m facility on Deer Park Road in Moulton Park, Northampton, is due to open in the spring of 2016.

Human resources director Allyson Russell said most of its 300 new staff members would be recruited from Hungary.

She said "very low unemployment" in Northampton meant few people had applied for the positions locally.

Greencore's £35m factory will be completed by the spring of 2016

The demolition of a former shoe factory has started, ahead of the construction of the new building.

Greencore, which employs 1,200 staff in the US and Britain, is currently advertising for machine setters, cleaners, porters and quality monitors.

Mrs Russell said recruiters would be heading to Hungary on Monday to find new employees.

She said: "In Northampton, we do have a problem in that there is very low unemployment.

Workers with more than 40 years' service at Greencore attended the demolition

"There aren't enough people around and it is not always the kind of work people have wanted to do."

She said Greencore had run a scheme with job centres in Northampton, but had not attracted many applicants from the town.

"Ideally, we would be flooded with applications, but actually we are having to work really hard to find people who will come and work for us," Mrs Russell said.

"Everyone has an equal opportunity, but we haven't been able to find the staff coming to us locally."

Workers with more than 40 years' service each at Greencore attended the demolition.