Greencore shares tumble as coronavirus outbreak means Northampton faces lockdown

Greencore shares took a fresh tumble this morning after the sandwich maker saw an outbreak of coronavirus among employees at one of its manufacturing plants in the Midlands.

The Mark and Spencer sandwich maker has reported almost 300 staff from its site in Northampton are infected with the novel coronavirus.

The company took the decision to test workers as a result of a rise in cases in the town.

In a statement, Greencore said: “As a result of the rising number of Covid-19 cases in the Northampton area, we took the decision to start proactively testing all of the colleagues at our Northampton site.

“We can confirm that a number of colleagues have tested positive for the virus and are now self-isolating.

“We are liaising closely with PHE East Midlands, Northamptonshire County Council and Northampton Borough Council, who are fully supportive of the controls that we have on site.”

When the news broke yesterday afternoon Greencore shares fell 2.5%. Today they were down another 4% or 5p at 123p.

The outbreak means Northampton could face lockdown as local health chiefs have become increasingly worried about how quickly the virus spread.

Northampton is one of 29 places on Public Health England's watchlist. Leicester, Blackburn, Preston and Aberdeen are under strict rules, along with a wider area around Greater Manchester and Lancashire where rules are tighter than they are elsewhere in the country.