Three Moy Park poultry farms in Northern Ireland are up for sale and leaseback for around GBP2 million (US$2.4 million), reports Belfast Telegraph.
In total, there are three farms for sale with 20 poultry houses, and an overall capacity of 580,000 birds, according to sales agent O’Connor Kennedy Turtle (OKT).
While two of the farms are located near to Coleraine in County Londonderry, one is in Crumlin in neighboring County Antrim.
From the OKT literature, it appears that all the poultry houses are in need of significant expenditure for modernization. Furthermore, the purchaser is required to provide a house for the manager of the two Coleraine properties.
In addition to the land costs, it is estimated that updating the properties would be a further GBP7.2 million.
Once the refurbishment work is complete, all the farms are to be handed over to Moy Park as tenant operator.
More on Moy Park
Moy Park is one of the top 15 food companies in the United Kingdom (U.K.), according to the firm’s own website. Furthermore, it is among Europe’s leading poultry producers, and is the largest private sector business in Northern Ireland. The company supplies branded and own-label chicken products — organic, free-range and higher welfare chicken — through retail and food-service channels nationwide, as well as Ireland and Europe.
Working with 800 farmers and 590 broiler farms, Moy Park reports it has 35 million chickens on the ground at any one time. It also supplies 25% of the Western European market for meat chicken parents.
In Northern Ireland, the firm has two primary processing facilities — at Ballymena and Dungannon — and a plant producing coated and ready-to-eat products at Craigavon.
In 2017, Moy Park became part of U.S.-based Pilgrim’s Pride when it was acquired from JBS.
Pilgrim’s Pride is the second largest poultry producer in the U.S., according to the WATTPoultry.com’s Top Poultry Companies survey. With annual slaughterings of 312 million birds, the same source puts Moy Park as the second largest poultry producer in the U.K. Brazil-based JBS is the majority shareholder of Pilgrim’s Pride.
One month ago, Pilgrim’s Pride announced it had formed a new European company. Pilgrim’s Shared Services Ltd was set up to provide cross-functional support to its subsidiaries in the region, including Moy Park.
