2 Sisters £45M investment to secure jobs
The investment will create the world’s most advanced poultry processing plant, according to the firm.
2 Sisters will introduce new robotic cells that will create a fully automated process that is expected to increase capacity at the site by a third, to 2.3M birds a week.
Scunthorpe general manager Dan Whillock said: “The whole team is delighted that Scunthorpe has been selected for such a major investment, the biggest since the site was built in 1988.
“It has been a huge boost to the workforce and is just reward for the hard work and dedication of our great people over the last 28 years.
‘World class facility’
“The project has taken many months of planning and our goal has always been to build a truly world class facility.”
The site upgrade was part of the company’s £150M poultry investment programme and was designed to improve animal welfare, quality and presentation of finished products.
2 Sisters Scunthorpe opened in 1988 and at the time was the biggest facility of its kind in Europe at over 74,000m2. It processed 900,000 birds a week for fresh, frozen and value-added categories.
Feed mills, hatcheries and farms were constructed at the same time as the factory to keep animal transportation to a minimum and to optimise bio-security.
‘1.8M birds a week’
Today the site processes 1.8M birds a week for a number of major retailers.
Planned improvements in animal welfare that are part of the investment follow a £10M programme to reduce campylobacter levels in poultry.
The news followed a series of rows between 2 Sisters and union Unite, over a number of jobs under threat at the manufacturer’s Nottingham pizza factory.
The union said it was unhappy with the possible redundancy package for those workers set to lose their jobs.
