It’s been an excellent year for Ranjit and Baljinder Boparan Singh’s 2 Sisters Food Group as their £342 million acquisition of Northern Foods proves to have been a good move.
Only Christmas puddings created a slight hiccup.
The Office of Fair Trading stepped in when the West Bromwich-based Boparan Holdings acquired chilled food brand RF Brookes and Newport-based Avana Bakeries from Premier Foods in a £30 million deal.
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The company already owns the Matthew Walker brand which it acquired in 2011 when it took over Northern Foods.
The OFT said that would give the combined group too big a slice of the lucrative £40 million Christmas pudding market. So the Boparans are selling Avana to Sargents Bakeries, and that has kept the OFT happy.
Turnover and profits for the Boparan’s food businesses continue to be healthy. In the financial year to July 28, 2012, turnover jumped nearly 10 per cent to £2.34 billion. The group says it is on course to hit turnover of £3 billion by 2015.
Earnings before interest and tax jumped by nearly 12 per cent from £170 million to £190.3 million. Profit for the year after exceptional items, interest and taxation moved to £42.5 million from a loss of £17 million in 2011. Net debt fell 18.5 per cent to £533.8 million.
And 2013 is already looking rosy, with the securing of significant new poultry business with Sainsbury’s. The group slipped into a £5.1 million loss in its first trading quarter of the current year, but this was due to exceptional costs associated with the closure of the Brookes Avana Leicester factory planned for April and the transfer of its operations to other sites. Before these costs, operating profit increased to £30.7 million on sales which were five per cent up.
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The takeover of Leeds-based Northern Foods from under the nose of Irish company Greencore has resulted in a combined group worth more than £1 billion. The Boparans agreed not to take dividends from Northern Foods for three years after demands from pension trustees.
International sales have grown by 116 per cent in the last two years with overseas sales worth more than £300 million a year.
The West Bromwich-based company – best known for its Buxted brand of whole chickens and chicken dishes – has achieved continued success despite spiralling feed ingredient costs which are hitting food manufacturers.
The company also owns fish and chip restaurant chain Harry Ramsdens and Ranjit Boparan says he plans to open 100 more branches of the famous Yorkshire outlet over the next five years, creating 600 new jobs. In addition, the company has created 100 new jobs at its Pizza Factory in Nottingham to meet growing demand.
The Boparans’ business – founded in 1993 – now employs nearly 7,000 people on 17 sites in the 海角视频, Holland and Poland.
The 海角视频 flagship of the group is its Scunthorpe processing plant which has been operating form more than 20 years. After a major investment programme it is now one of the most modern and best equipped food processing plants in Europe.
The company picks up awards for its business success, and recently Mr Boparan won The Grocer Cup for outstanding business achievement at the IGD food industry awards.
The Boparans – both 45 - are very keen on training and developing their workforce and are proud of their record of putting employees through NVQs on factory and farm production. They are also proud of the high standards of animal welfare and food safety among their partner companies and suppliers.