Bankrupt Spanish dairy group Clesa could be saved by Galician agricultural association Agaca, whch is considering purchasing the firm’s plant in north-west Spain.

“We are interested and we are conducting a viability study which should be ready in two weeks,” an Agaca official said.

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The prospective acquisition could save 150 jobs at the site in Pontevedra, the only Clesa factory that could avoid a definitive closure as bankruptcy judges mull liquidating the cash-strapped firm.

Clesa is owned by Spanish food group Nueva Rumasa, which is unwinding its businesses under one of the country’s largest-ever bankruptcies.

A Clesa factory in Madrid is set to shut its doors after the city’s bankruptcy court failed to find a buyer for the site. The closure will lead to the loss of 361 jobs.

An official with Spanish union CCOO who insisted on anonymity said the court also plans to shut the Bascones del Agua and Leganes sites, which make Clesa’s ice cream brand Helados Royne, also bankrupt.

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“Unless we get a last time minute for these factories, I don’t see how they will survive,” said the official. “The court is getting ready to liquidate the company as its debts are simply too high and there is no cash left.”

The official said “gross mismanagement” by the Ruiz-Mateos family, the owners of Nueva Rumasa, had led to snowballing debt and falling profits at Clesa.

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