Source: Rita Jane Gabbett, MEATINGPLACE, 9/1/16


2 Sisters Food Group announced plans for a £45 million ($60 million) upgrade that will create the world’s most advanced poultry processing plant at its site in Scunthorpe, England.

The investment will introduce new robotic cells to create a fully automated process that will increase the capacity of the site by a third to 2.4 million birds a week.

The company said in a news release the upgrades will help secure the future of the over 1600 jobs at the site, as well as improve animal welfare, quality and presentation of the finished product. The upgrade is a critical part of a £150 million ($200 million) 3-year poultry investment program unveiled at the end of last year.

The improvements in animal welfare that are part of this investment come on top of a £10 million ($13 million) program to reduce campylobacter levels in poultry, which has been praised by the Food Standards Agency and won the approval of major customers.

The Scunthorpe site opened in 1988. At the time, it was the biggest facility of its kind in Europe at over 800,000 square feet and processing 900,000 birds per week for fresh, frozen and value added categories. Feed mills, hatcheries and farms were constructed at the same time as the factory. Today, the site processes 1.8 million birds per week for a number of major retailers.
The protein division is the anchor of 2 Sisters’ business, producing around a third of all the poultry products consumed in the UK, as well as red meat operations and poultry products in Europe.

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