Glens of Antrim Potatoes Collapsed After 54 Years. Ninety-Five Jobs Went, and Its Growers Have Nowhere to Sell.
Estimated reading time: 4 minutes
In short. Glens of Antrim Potatoes Limited, a Cushendall and Ballymena grower and hand-cooked crisp maker trading since 1972, ceased trading on 21 September after joint administrators from Interpath Advisory were appointed, a filing confirmed directly on the company's Companies House record [1]. All 95 staff, bar a small skeleton team kept on to support the administrators, were made redundant [2]. The ledger logs a loss of 95, graded REPORTED, sector manufacturing, region Northern Ireland, ai_cited: no. No Belfast Gazette notice has been published yet, but the Companies House filing itself carries this ledger's REPORTED bar.
Glens of Antrim had been growing and packing potatoes for supermarkets across Ireland, and making its own hand-cooked crisps, for more than 50 years [2]. Joint administrator Stuart Irwin, managing director at Interpath, called it "a tremendously sad outcome for the business, its dedicated team, the agri-food sector in Northern Ireland, and the wider community in Ballymena and Cushendall" [3]. The administrators point to rising input costs squeezing cashflow across the agri-food sector; directors looked at refinancing and outside investment before concluding there was no solvent option left [2].
What was confirmed, and by whom
The company's Companies House insolvency record shows an administration start date of 21 September 2026 and names all three joint administrators, Stuart Irwin, Ian Leonard and Robin Coughlin [1]. That statutory filing is what grades this row REPORTED rather than ANNOUNCED, even though no Belfast Gazette notice has appeared in the five days since. North Antrim MP Jim Allister KC put the jobs figure plainly: "Not only are 95 jobs being lost, but there is a big network of growers which could be left in the lurch" [4]. Ninety-five is also the figure every outlet covering the story uses for the workforce; the skeleton team retained to help the administrators is real but unquantified in any account found, so 95 is logged as the loss, consistent with how this ledger has treated a workforce figure against an unspecified retained handful before.
The part that is not yet resolved
A closure at a potato packer does not stop at its own payroll. Growers who supplied Glens of Antrim under long-standing arrangements are now, in Allister's words, left with potatoes in the ground and no buyer, at the point in the season when those costs are already sunk [4]. Ulster Farmers' Union deputy president Clement Lynch says the union will seek "urgent meetings with retailers to discuss how they can prioritise locally grown potatoes and support our growers during this period" [5]. Nobody has yet put a number on how many growers are affected or what it will cost them; that is a second, uncounted toll sitting outside this ledger's scope, which logs jobs, not grower contracts. The administrators are now seeking a buyer for the business and its assets [6].
How the ledger logs it
A loss of 95, graded REPORTED, sector manufacturing, region Northern Ireland, ai_cited: no. This is only the ledger's second Northern Ireland entry, after Ulster University's 450 in April. Nothing here is attributed to AI or automation by anyone involved; the stated cause throughout is input costs and cashflow, the same pressure line already logged against Zentia and Metsa Wood this year.
What happens next in this ledger
Watch two things: whether a Belfast Gazette notice follows to confirm what the Companies House filing already shows, and whether a buyer emerges for the Cushendall and Ballymena sites, which would turn some of these 95 redundancies into a rescue rather than a full loss, the same pattern this ledger tracked at Clayton Glass and Zentia. Until then, the row stands as logged: a business trading since 1972 gone within days, and a network of growers still waiting to find out what it costs them.
Sources
- Companies House, "Glens of Antrim Potatoes Limited, insolvency," accessed 26 September 2026. https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/NI030390/insolvency
- The Grocer, "Glens of Antrim Potatoes appoints administrators," 22 September 2026. https://www.thegrocer.co.uk/news/glens-of-antrim-potatoes-appoints-administrators/723874.article
- The Irish News, "'Tremendously sad outcome' as Glens of Antrim Potatoes enters administration," 22 September 2026. https://www.irishnews.com/news/northern-ireland/tremendously-sad-outcome-as-glens-of-antrim-potatoes-enters-administration-RVNTA3JYVFG4HPBHZ2JMSZN2Y4/
- Farmers Guide, "Glens of Antrim collapse leaves NI potato growers facing uncertainty," 24 September 2026. https://www.farmersguide.co.uk/business/food-drink/glens-of-antrim-collapse-leaves-ni-potato-growers-facing-uncertainty/
- Ulster Farmers' Union, "UFU statement on Glens of Antrim," 23 September 2026. https://www.ufuni.org/ufu-statement-on-glens-of-antrim/
- Food & Drink International, "Administrators appointed to Glens of Antrim Potatoes," 22 September 2026. https://www.fdiforum.net/mag/production/administrators-appointed-to-glens-of-antrim-potatoes/