The staff at beach racist Adam Catzavelos’s food company have begged deserting customers not to leave them jobless.

A statement issued on Friday on behalf of St George’s Fine Foods employees said Catzavelos’s use of the k-word in a viral video was “not consonant with what [the company] stands for”.

Numerous customers have said they will stop doing business with the Johannesburg company‚ which fired Catzavelos and removed him from its board after the video emerged on Tuesday.

The staff statement‚ issued by Johannesburg law firm Clifford Levin Incorporated‚ said: “We‚ and our families‚ are financially dependent on St George’s Fine Foods and a number of us would be desolate without our positions within the company. A large number of us are the sole breadwinners of our families.”