Local MP Murrison is telling porkies, claims Graham Watson MEP

4.21.36pm UTC (GMT +0000) Wed 17th Oct 2007

The decision to shut the Bowyers Pork Pie factory in Trowbridge in April 2008 is not the EU's fault, claims South West Lib Dem MEP Graham Watson. Reacting to today's Western Daily Press story 'EU has cost 400 jobs in West town', Graham Watson said:

"I regret that the closure of Bowyers will cost jobs for my constituents in Trowbridge. But we need to be honest about the reason for this and Andrew Murrison MP's comments are misinformed when he claims that the EU is responsible for this closure. If you look at the situation, what is happening is that the owners of Bowyers are doing what equity funds do everywhere: closing a site to maximise their profit. By concentrating production on one site elsewhere they will be able to sell a valuable land asset in Trowbridge for a lot of money while land prices are high. Years of under-investment in the Bowyers site make it less profitable than others."

The Protected Geographic Indicator Regulation (PGI), which Westbury MP Andrew Murrison claims is responsible for the closure of Bowyers, came into force under EU law in 1993 and is intended to protect regional foods. The law ensures that only products genuinely originating in that region are allowed to be marketed. The purpose of the law is to protect the reputation of regional foods and to eliminate unfair competition which misleads consumers into buying products which may be of inferior quality or a different flavour. Throughout the EU, products such as Cornish pasties, Newcastle Brown Ale, Gorgonzola, Parmigiano Reggiano, Champagne are all afforded protected status.

Melton Mowbray applied for protected name status in 1999 and was awarded protected status in 2005. But this is not due to come into force for another 5 years and therefore Bowyers could have continued to call their pies Melton Mowbray Pork pies for the immediate future. Moreover there is no ruling to prevent the owners of Bowyers changing their name, for example to 'Trowbridge Pork Pies'.

Graham Watson continued:

"Had Vision Capital, the owners of Bowyers, invested fourteen years ago in re-branding Bowyers meat pies there would be a healthy future for Trowbridge Pies - just as there is for West Country Farmhouse Cheddar, Single Gloucester and other products up and down the country from the Cornish Pasty to Newcastle Brown Ale.

"Had the owners of Bowyers invested fourteen years ago in re-branding Bowyers meat pies there would be a healthy future for Trowbridge Pies", argues Graham Watson

The Bowyers workforce should be in no doubt: it is short term profit maximization which is the cause of their job losses, not the EU!"