Poultry operation Hook2 Sisters — previously operating as a joint venture between PD Hook and 2 Sisters Food Group — has come under the ownership of 2 Agriculture Holding Ltd. This newly created entity is part of BPO.
Creating a full ownership model from the former JV offers the opportunity to create a fully integrated agricultural supply model, according to the 2 Sisters Food Group.
In future, the holding company will manage a fully integrated poultry business, from poultry breeding to live transportation to the slaughterhouses and meat processing factories of 2 Sisters and Bernard Matthews.
Furthermore, the move will allow both 2 Sisters and the BPO to be self-sufficient in terms of the supply chain to their processing facilities.
Workers at the group’s hatcheries, breeding and grower farms will transfer to 2 Agriculture Breeding Ltd, without changes to their terms of employment.
All three entities — 2 Agriculture Holdings, PD Hook, and 2 Sisters Food Group — have undertaken to cooperate to deliver high welfare standards for the birds, and quality food products.
More on 2 Sisters Food Group, BPO
With annual slaughterings of 525 million birds, 2 Sisters Food Group is the largest poultry meat company in the U.K., and the second largest in Europe, according to WATTPoultry.com’s Top Poultry Companies survey for 2023. Supplying one-third of the country’s home-produced chickens and turkeys, the firm is among the nation’s leading food companies.
Latest financial results released for the 2 Sisters Food Group — for the 12 months to July of 2024 — record a small increase in total turnover year-on-year. A significant improvement in the bottom line is attributed to operational improvements.
The group’s feed business is 2 Agriculture. It operates five feed mills across the U.K. plus one extrusion plant, according to the company web site. With an annual output exceeding one million metric tons, complete and balanced diets are manufactured for broilers, broiler breeders, laying hens, turkeys, and ducks. Including its own transport fleet, the company has a total workforce of more than 350.
Output of one million metric tons per year puts 2Agriculture among the leading feed companies in Europe, according to Feed Strategy’s Top Feed Companies database for 2023.
A proposed poultry feed JV between ForFarmers and 2Agriculture was abandoned by the partners in 2023, ahead of the conclusion of an investigation by the U.K. Competition and Markets Authority (CMA).
Earlier this year, however, the CMA cleared the proposed purchase of two ForFarmers’ feed mills by 2Agriculture. Newly acquired facilities in Burston (in Norfolk) and Radstock (Somerset) bring 2Agriculture’s feed manufacturing sites to seven.
Listed as directors of BPO on Companies House — the U.K. government’s official business register — are Ranjit Singh Boparan, Baljinder Kaur Boparan, Daniel Howlett, Paul Price, and Trevor Strain.
