THE MANAGEMENT of Akosombo Textiles Limited (ATL) has denied allegations that the company has closed down, describing the news as complete falsehood.

The Manager of General Services, Nana Owusu Asiedu and the Human Resource Manager, Ebenezer Darko briefed journalists who had gone to the company to verify the authenticity of story.

He said the publication had caused great embarrassment to the company, affecting its corporate image.

According to them, it has affected the company's relationship with its bankers, suppliers and customers since “the publication had portrayed the company as been bankrupt.”

“Currently, one-third of the total workforce were still at the factory,” it said.

According to the management, the company put out a notice, telling workers that the company would shut down temporarily because of the shortage of black oil.

“This is something that we normally do when there is either shortage of cotton or black oil so that we can cut cost because when the workers come to work we have to give them food,” it explained, adding that the company took delivery of two tankers of black.

“We have about 1,450 workers at the factory and 686 of them were asked to come to work on Monday.

526 came to work on Tuesday and this workforce would be maintained until the situation normalizes,” it noted.

It revealed that “it is never possible for the company to just close down because of labour and redundancy laws that govern the closure of companies.

The management said apart from the direct problems of shortage of inputs and high cost of electricity; imitations and unfair competition were affected production in the factory.

It asked the government to subsidize cotton and black oil, which are critical raw material for textile production.

The management assured customers, suppliers and bankers that the company would continue to operate.

The statement, which was sighted by BUSINESS GUIDE was captioned, “Factory Break.”

“Due to the shortage of cotton and black oil there will be no production at all departments from Monday, February 1, 2010 until the situation improves. However, workers who would be required for essential duties will be notified by their department managers,” it noted.

After the briefing, the management took the journalists round the factory to observe the stages of production.

From Thomas Fosu Jnr, Akosombo