2 Sisters Food Group
 | |
| Private | |
| Industry | Food manufacturing |
| Founded | 1993 |
| Founder | Ranjit Singh Boparan |
| Headquarters | Colmore Row, Birmingham, England |
Area served | United Kingdom, Netherlands and Poland |
| Products | Poultry, red meat, biscuits, chilled and bakery products |
| Revenue | £3.14 billion |
| Owner | Boparan Holdings |
Number of employees | 23,000 |
2 Sisters Food Group is a privately owned Birmingham, England-based food manufacturing company.
Established in 1993 by entrepreneur and current chief executive, Ranjit Singh Boparan, as a frozen retail poultry cutting operation, it has grown rapidly through acquisition and expanded to cover 36 manufacturing sites in the UK, six in the Netherlands, five in Ireland and 1 in Poland.
Primarily a private label manufacturer for retailer and food service markets, the acquisition of Northern Foods in 2011 gave the Group ownership of brands like Fox's Biscuits, Goodfella's Pizza, Holland's Pies, Matthew Walker Christmas Puddings, Donegal Catch and Green Isle.
It is the largest food company in the UK by turnover.[1]
The group employs 23,000 people, with annual sales of £3.14 billion. It is listed 8th on the 2015 Sunday Times Top Track 100.
On 27 October 2015, the Group announced its full year results (52 weeks ending 1 August 2015). Sales were £3.14bn, with like-for-like operating profit of £60.4m. The Group reported overall losses for the year of £4.3m, against £143.3m losses the previous year. It also announced a three-year £205m investment plan for its poultry and ready meals businesses.[2]
In December 2013, the company was ranked as Britain's 4th Most Admired Company (food producers sector) in the Management Today Most Admired Company list, voted for by its industry peers.
Structure
The company has seven primary trading categories:
UK Poultry - Employs more than 8,000 people at 17 sites. Activity includes primary processing of Red Tractor minimum standard birds, Free Range, Organic and Corn Fed chicken. This represents about half of the business by sales.
European Poultry - Employs 2,000 at six sites in the Netherlands and one in Poland.
Red Meat - Employs 1,000 at two sites in Devon and Cornwall.
Frozen - Employs 800 in the UK and Ireland - manufactures the Goodfellas Pizza brand
Biscuits - Employs more than 2,000 and produces Fox's Biscuits and own label from three sites (Batley, Uttoxeter and Kirkham)
Chilled - Employs 4,000 with products including ready meals, soups and sandwiches
Bakery - Employs 1,000 producing chilled pizza, puddings, sandwiches, sushi, hot cross buns and morning goods
Following the acquisition of the VION UK business in 2013 (see below) 11 sites based in Wales, Scotland, Eye, Witham, Basildon, and two sites in Cornwall (Bodmin and Victoria) were added to the portfolio.
There are also Group functions (located in Birmingham, Wakefield and Nottingham) - Finance, IT, HR, legal, communications, procurement, payroll, technical
Board
Executive Directors
- Ranjit Singh Boparan – CEO
- Baljinder Boparan - Director
- Steve Leadbeater – Group CFO
- Martyn Fletcher – COO, protein[3]
Non-executive Directors
- Charles Allen, Baron Allen of Kensington – Chairman
- Andrew Cripps – Senior Independent Director, chair of Audit Committee
- David Gregory – Non-executive chair of Safety & Governance Committee
- Susan Murray – member, audit and remuneration committees
- Ros Rivaz – member, audit and remuneration committees
History
November 2000 - sites at Scunthorpe and Flixton were acquired. These were significant acquisitions as it meant the group would move from a poultry meat cutting operation to a primary producer.[4]
September 2005 -the group purchased Haughley Park near Stowmarket, allowing the business to manufacture cooked and breaded poultry.[5]
June 2007 - the group made four acquisitions - including Joseph Mitchell (Letham) of Forfar; Challenger Foods of Sunderland, where 400,000 chicken fillets per week are prepared for sandwich and pizza market; and the Tulip facility in Morecambe.
January 2008 - the group bought Devon poultry firm Lloyd Maunder. The firm, based in Willand in mid-Devon, was bought for an undisclosed sum.
April 2010 - the group announced the agreed acquisition of Dutch-based chicken processor Storteboom Group, with facilities in the Netherlands and Poland.[6]
January 2011 - the group announced it was to buy Northern Foods PLC in a deal worth £342m.[7]
December 2011 - Premier Foods sold its Brookes Avana business, combining RF Brookes chilled foods and Avana Bakeries, to 2 Sisters for £30m.
March 2013 - the group announced the acquisition of the UK arm of Dutch poultry and red meat company VION. The acquisition helped to meet growing demand from 2 Sisters' poultry customers and further diversifies the company's offering to include red meat, supporting 2 Sisters' strategy of serving more meal occasions.
The acquisition followed the announcement by VION's Dutch parent company on 19 November 2012 of its plan to exit its UK operations.[8]
June 2013 - the VION acquisition was granted unconditional clearance by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT).[9][10]
August 2014 - The business announced it was selling its Avana Bakeries cake business in Newport and its salads business Solway Foods in Corby, Northamptonshire.
Sustainability
In December 2014, the business signed a major contract with Liverpool-based H2 Energy for the installation of bio-refineries at ten 2 Sisters factories to convert product waste into energy. The company claims the deal - which will eventually encompass all its manufacturing sites in the UK – will deliver 35,000 tonnes of carbon savings, 20,000 fewer lorry journeys a year and a significant electric and thermal energy boost, reducing its non transport carbon footprint by 10%. [11]
Food standards
In August 2014, an undercover investigation into high levels of the food poisoning bacteria campylobacter in food in the UK allegedly showed raw chicken, contaminated by being dropped on the factory floor, being returned to the production line at the Scunthorpe factory. The company strongly disputed this claim, pointing out the footage did not prove the chicken entered the human food chain. The Food Standards Agency initially cleared the factory of any wrongdoing but then admitted a breach of regulations had occurred though the company wasn't fined.[12]
In November 2014, 2 Sisters claimed to have launched the most comprehensive programme in the poultry industry to reduce campylobacter levels. The initiative, claimed to be costing £10m, would encompass the entire supply chain from farm through to consumer, using a variety of interventions including blast surface chilling and 'no touch' packaging.[13]
References
- ↑ "Boparan Holdings Beats ABF To Top Spot In Food And Drink Survey".
- ↑ http://www.fwi.co.uk/poultry/150m-pound-investment-planned-for-2-sisters-poultry-division.htm
- ↑ Addy, Rod. "Morrisons director joins 2 Sisters Food Group". meatinfo.co.uk. meatinfo.co.uk. Retrieved 27 April 2016.
- ↑ "Premier Fresh Foods - market intelligence".
- ↑ "2 Sisters' new sibling".
- ↑ "2 Sisters Commits to Acquisition of Storteboom Group". prnewswire.co.uk. 2010-04-23. Retrieved 2010-07-02.
- ↑ Bawden, Tom (2011-01-22). "Boparan buys Northern Foods". The Guardian (London).
- ↑ "Three Scottish meat processing firms saved after Vion UK sale". BBC News. 2013-03-04.
- ↑ "2 Sisters / Vion". Archived from the original on 2013-06-22. Retrieved 2013-06-20.
- ↑ "Vion takeover: 2 Sisters deal approval 'secures thousands of jobs'". BBC News. 2013-06-18.
- ↑ Hodgson, Neil (3 December 2014). "H2 Energy £50m bio-refinery deal will create 250 jobs". Liverpool Echo. Retrieved 6 January 2015.
- ↑ Felicity Lawrence and Andrew Wasley (12 August 2014). "UK food watchdog admits chicken factory breached hygiene laws". Guardian newspapers. Retrieved 8 September 2014.
- ↑ http://www.thepoultrysite.com/poultrynews/33794/2-sisters-food-group-leads-way-on-campylobacter-fight