The Longford-based meat company, John Stone Beef, has closed its home delivery service.

In a statement this week announcing the move, the firm blamed escalating costs for the decision.

“It is with great regret that we are announcing the closure of johnstonebeefshop.com at the end of the month. Unfortunately, increasing costs have meant that the delivery business is no longer viable,” the company stated.

“We offer our heartfelt thanks to the thousands of customers who have supported us over the last two years and we offer our apologies for disappointing the people who have continued to buy produce from us on a weekly basis,” it added.

“John Stone Beef will continue trading as usual, supplying world-class beef to hotels and restaurants all over the world,” the company stated.

The well-known firm is owned by the Stone family and partners with the Kepak Group for its cattle supplies in Ireland.

The company has been trading in Ireland under the John Stone Beef brand since the early 2000s. It started out supplying beef to hotels and restaurants but branched out into a home delivery service in early 2020, just before COVID-19 struck.

Meanwhile, a shortage of skilled labour in the beef sector is forcing factories to spread its kill across four and five days in order to retain workers.

Although the number of cattle being killed in plants only justifies factories operating for three and four days, plants are remaining open for four and five days as they are afraid of losing staff, industry sources maintain.

Last week’s kill was just 31,000 head, the second lowest of the year so far.