Hazlewood Foods has tried to calm fears of closures and job losses in the wake of a statement from Irish bidder Greencore which promised a "sizeable rationalisation and restructuring" of their combined businesses should its takeover bid go through. "Rationalisation" is not a code word for redundancies, said Hazlewood Foods spokesman Jonathan Grant-Nicholas. "Hazlewood has some very strong businesses in the UK and central Europe and I believe Greencore wants a very large proportion of Hazlewood to propel it forward," said Nicholas. Greencore is unable to make further comment about its plans during the offer period. But sources close to the discussions say Hazlewood's toilet tissue and horticulture divisions would be the first to go because they don't fit in with Greencore's strategy of focusing on high growth convenience foods areas. Shareholders representing almost a third of the Hazlewood's stock have already accepted Greencore's 113p per share offer, while those remaining have until mid-December to mull over documents from the board recommending they sell to the Irish trade buyer. Greencore bought over 15% of Hazlewood's stock on the market after the bid, making a rival offer from disgruntled French private equity group Paribas Affaires Industrielles "very unlikely," added Nicholas. "Let's just say a counter bidder would have to offer a substantially higher price to have any hope of success." A 37.6% drop in pre tax profits to just £13m on sales up less than 1% to £389.8m for the six months to September 30 was blamed on high paper prices, heavy investments "crucial to the continued development of the business," and "delays in coming onstream" in the ready meals front after its reorganisation. {{NEWS }}