The refrigerator creator Paty has reactivated its plant in La Pampa and reintegrated 450 employees

The General Pico Refrigeration Plant resumed its activity after more than six months of total paralysis, in a process that includes the reincorporation of more than 400 workers at its plant located in Trenel, province of La Pampa.

The company, owned by the Lowenstein family and linked to the origin of Paty hamburgers, was reactivated with the intervention of the Gorina Refrigeration Plant, which took over the management of the plant through a three-month rental contract, with the possibility of renewal. This scheme is part of the preventive bankruptcy process that Frigorífico General Pico has been undergoing since March.

The new operator is one of the main players in the Argentine meat sector. Owned by brothers Carlos and Roberto Riusech, representatives of the third generation of the family, Frigorífico Gorina positions itself as one of the largest exporters of beef in the country with exclusively national capital.

In the sector ranking, it is positioned behind Swift Argentina in slaughter and export volume, while the Lequio Group completes the group of the main companies.

The confirmation of the restart of activities was made by Dardo Loza, general secretary of the Union of Workers and Employees of the Meat Industry of La Pampa, who provided details of the agreement reached.

“It has a three-month rental that they will be renewing,” said the leader, adding that the company “started working last week.”

Regarding the initial term of the contract, Loza explained that it responds to legal issues related to the bankruptcy process: “there are legal matters that need to be resolved with the Board.”

He also denied rumors about a partial reincorporation of staff and clarified: “It is not 200 people who are working,” specifying that it is “450 colleagues who have already returned to work.”

As part of the conditions for returning to activity, the company has made progress in the regularization of the salary debt accumulated during the months of inactivity. In this context, it paid the corresponding wages for part of April and all of May, which allowed for the reincorporation of suspended staff.

Currently, the Trenel plant operates with a slaughter level of approximately 400 heads daily. The production is destined for both the domestic market and export, with the expectation of gradually increasing the volume in the coming weeks until reaching a stable level of activity.