2 Sisters Food Group to Acquire VION’s UK Poultry and Red Meat Businesses
2 Sisters Food Group has agreed to acquire VION’s poultry and red meat processing businesses in the UK. The acquisition secures a viable future for these businesses, as well as providing certainty to their UK supply chain, which is underpinned by British farmers. The acquisition will help 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.
2 Sisters, which employs over 18,000 people and has annual sales of over £2.3 billion, operates from 42 sites in the UK, Ireland, India and Europe, supplying poultry, ready meals, sandwiches, salads, pies, pizza, fish, puddings, cakes and desserts, and biscuits. Its brands include Fox’s Biscuits and Goodfella’s pizzas.
The acquisition follows the announcement by VION’s Dutch parent company on 19 November 2012 of its plan to exit its UK operations. VION’s poultry and red meat businesses are suppliers of poultry, beef and lamb to the retail and food service sectors in the UK and Europe. They have 11 processing sites in the UK and approximately 6,000 employees and have suffered from challenging trading conditions, in particular in poultry, with the loss of a number of major contracts.
Ranjit Singh, chief executive of 2 Sisters Food Group, says: “We are delighted to be acquiring VION UK’s poultry and red meat businesses. They have faced significant uncertainty and tough trading in recent months, but today’s acquisition secures a viable future. With the majority of the operations being inScotlandandWales, we are delighted that the Scottish and Welsh governments are supportive of this deal and we look forward to working with them and developing a sustainable future for these businesses.”
He adds: “At 2 Sisters, we put the customer at the heart of everything we do and in line with our customers’ strategies, these businesses will help us to shorten the supply chain for consumers and meet growing demand for British sourced food. Our immediate focus will be to improve performance, as we have successfully done with our previous acquisitions.”
VION’s UK pork division was sold to a management buy-out consortium in December 2012. VION is continuing to explore opportunities for its Welsh Country Foods business which is currently in a 90 day consultation process following its key customer delisting it as a supplier.
