Business

Moy Park revenues edge above £1.5 billion as staff numbers set to hit 10,000

Moy Park in Craigavon has reported sales of more than £1.5 billion for 2017
Moy Park in Craigavon has reported sales of more than £1.5 billion for 2017 Moy Park in Craigavon has reported sales of more than £1.5 billion for 2017

NORTHERN Ireland's biggest company Moy Park has revealed an eight per cent uplift in sales to more than £1.5 billion is what is says has been a "year of significant progress".

The Craigavon-headquartered poultry producer's operating profit rose by 10 per cent to £72.2 million as employee numbers creep towards the milestone 10,000 mark.

And its balance sheet has continued to strengthen, with net assets of £294.5 million, an increase of 19 per cent on 2016.

Moy Park, which since last September has been owned by Pilgrim's Pride, the world's second largest chicken producer, currently produces six million chickens a week and 600,000 turkeys a year, along with 200,000 tonnes of added-value products.

Figures filed at Companies House covering the 2017 calendar year underline the firm's unrelenting growth (it has increased production by more than 20 per cent since 2015 and now supplies 30 per cent of the total UK poultry market).

Turnover jumped from £1.51bn from £1.4bn while gross profit rose from £169.3m to £178.9m. Retained profit was £59.3m against £49m the previous year.

Staff numbers at the company - which has 12 processing facilities in Northern Ireland, England, France and Holland - rose to 9,839, all but 723 of whom are employed in the UK and Ireland.

And it means Moy Park has the north's largest single yearly wages bill at a whopping £253.6 million (it was £242.7m in 2016).

Moy Park works in partnership with more than 800 dedicated farming partners across the UK, who supply poultry to the company, and it attributes its growth to the continued demand for quality locally sourced birds.

In a strategic report accompanying the results, the directors said: "Our aim is to be the leading and most highly-regarded food group, providing fresh high quality and locally farmed poultry and complementary food products and brands to customers and consumers by being the most effective, efficient and safe organisation of our kind in the industry."

The said its trading performance was "strong" in the face of global market conditions that continue to be challenging.

It added that its increase in revenues and profit was "underpinned by a strategy of unrelenting focus on cost control, excellent customer relations and a culture of constant innovation in a changing competitive landscape".

They add: "Moy Park is built on the highest standards of food safety and quality and we are focused on meeting the exceeding the ever-evolving expectations of our customers and consumers through innovation, food development, consumer insight and category marketing.

"We have invested £40 million in our infrastructure during the year, continuing to secure Moy Park's position as one of the UK's most advanced food manufacturing companies."

But among the principal risks it identifies is feed prices (a significant portion of the group's cost is attributable to the ingredients used in feed grain, which can be affected by global supply and demand, weather patterns and government policies), changing consumer trends and a possible outbreak of Avian flu.

In May this year London-born Chris Kirke, previously with the Greencore Group in the US, replaced long-serving boss Janet McCollum as the company's managing director.