Moy Park profits grow strongly over past year

Poultry processor Moy Park, Northern Ireland's largest food company and only £1 billion business, has seen profits rise five-fold over the past year.

Pre-tax profits reached £24.4 million in the 2012 calendar year, up from just £4.8 million a year earlier. Turnover climbed 1.6 per cent to £1.09 billion over the period.

The directors' report said: "This sales performance incorporates the ongoing management of considerable input cost inflation.. However, we also managed to deliver sales mix improvement and we were particularly successful in building our market share both with existing and new customers. We believe this positions the business more effectively in the future."

Moy Park is a specialist poultry business, sourcing chickens and turkeys from a network of suppliers to produce fresh and chilled products and convenience meal sold in supermarkets across the UK, Ireland and Europe. The company's Moy Park-branded cheese-and-bacon chicken breasts, pesto chicken breasts and garlic-and-herb chicken breasts are found in Tesco stores across Ireland.

The company employed an average of 8,449 full-time and part-time members of staff in 2012, down from 8,623 a year earlier.

Moy Park operates 11 processing facilities in Northern Ireland, England and France. However, the business has indicated that it plans to focus increasingly on chickens farmed in Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

The directors said: "In line with our strategy and to support our customers' requirements to grow sales of chicken farmed in Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Moy Park will continue to materially invest in building upon our already industry-leading farming and operational base.

"We will also continue to further develop our commercial capabilities through areas such as innovative food development, consumer insight and effective customer and category marketing. We have been particularly pleased with the progress of the Moy Park brand in Ireland where it is market leader."

Moy Park's headquarters are located in Craigavon, county Armagh. The business is the main subsidiary of Moy Park Holdings (Europe), a holding company that also operates the Kitchen Range snacks business. The company is owned by Brazil-based food-processing giant Marfrig, which has announced plans to move its European headquarters to the Craigavon plant.