The second largest brewer in Belgium, Alken Maes, part of S&N, plans to close its output side at Waarloos in the province of Antwerp. Now the plant employs 130 people that are going to be early retired, transferred to another facility and retraining programs. “Only a small proportion of the Waarloos staff had agreed to switch to a production facility in Alken in north-eastern Belgium,” said a spokesman of the company.

Alken Maes, is to begin disassembling the plant at the end of the month, with production scheduled to be interrupted by the end of March.

In 2001 the company registered sales of €190m ($202m). Alken Maes owns its main breweries in Alken, Jumet and Kobbegem and employs in total some 850 people.