Along with its fourth quarter results, Boparan Holdings Ltd. has announced a GBP150 million (US$230 million) investment in its poultry business with the aim to drive productivity and efficiency across its business over the next 3 to 4 years.
Based in Birmingham, Boparan Holdings is the parent company of 2 Sisters Food Group, a leading poultry processor in the U.K., which holds a strong position as a diversified food manufacturer in the protein, chilled, bakery and frozen categories.
“We are making a number of important investments with the aim of providing our customers and consumers with innovative products, better value and reduced waste,” said Ranjit Singh, 2 Sisters Food Group CEO. “Today, we can announce that we are launching a major GBP150 million investment program in our poultry business that will completely revolutionize our supply chain end to end. We are aiming to further align our poultry business with the needs of our customers, creating world-class facilities utilizing state-of-the-art technology.”
The company says it is continuing its efforts to reduce Campylobacter. To date, it has invested GBP10 million (US$15.3 million) in this area and its progress has been recognized by the Food Standards Agency and its customers, Singh added.
“With the further use of our new factory interventions, we anticipate an even greater removal of Campylobacter, reducing its presence to significantly less than the industry target,” he said. “The success of these trials means we are now looking at rolling this initiative out to a wider customer base.”
Total sales for the fourth quarter were 13.5 percent lower than the same period of last year, while like-for-like sales were down by 3 percent.
“During 2015, we focussed on costs, efficiency, investment, innovation and deepening customer relationships,” said Singh. “The operating environment for our industry remains tough but we have seen a consistent improvement in our performance across all our divisions, with a 17.5 percent increase in like-for-like operating profit to GBP22.8 million (US$35 million) from Q3 to Q4.”
Just one month ago, 2 Sisters announced plans to invest GBP55 million (US$84 million) in its meal solutions division to support further growth, create state of the art manufacturing facilities and secure jobs. 2 Sisters’ meal solutions produces a range of products including ready meals, soups and sauces. The division is wholly focused on own-label products, predominantly for retail chain Marks & Spencer. During the previous quarter, the company announced it was investing to increase its frozen pizza capacity.
