The Mayor of Leeton says there is new certainty today for one of the shire’s main employers, Rockdale Beef.

The multinational beef processor, JBS of Brazil, is doing due diligence checks to buy the Japanese owned feedlot and abattoir near Yanco.

The abattoir cut 150 jobs last year in the global financial downturn.

Leeton Mayor Paul Maytom says the sale should mean security for some Rockdale workers after months of uncertainty.

“There’s been some I suppose rumours in the community that the business was in trouble,” he said.

“Now there was no confirmation that the business was in trouble. All we got was they were looking for a buyer and I know that they’ve been scaling back some of the work on the feedlot side as far as reducing the cattle numbers.

“They have been reducing staff and the last I heard a few weeks back was they were reducing the staff quite substantially in the feedlot side of things because they had to reduce the cattle numbers, as I understood at the time, right back to, I think zero, before the changeover could occur. Now whether that’s happening now with the proposed new owners I do not know.

“The community have had some degree of uncertainty over the last few months over what might be happening with the business. The good thing about the announcement in the last day now gives some certainty I suppose to the employees because effectively the business is in good hands with the new owner.”

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) says it is yet to play a role in the proposed acquisition of Rockdale Beef.

An ACCC spokeswoman says if the sale is likely to happen, the commission would look into whether the acquisition would substantially lessen competition.