Northern Ireland's Dunbia buys Scottish meat processor

Dunbia, the Northern Ireland headquartered meat processor, has strengthened its Scottish operations with the acquisition of Lynch Quality Meats in Ayr. This latest purchase now positions the company as one of the strongest players in the industry with 13 sites strategically located in every region in the UK and Ireland employing over 4000 people.

The decision on additional investment in Scotland comes on the back of Dunbia winning sole supply status for Scottish beef, pork and lamb to Sainsbury's and to The Co-operative.

Michael Doran, Dunbia sales director, says: "It was the next important strategic step for Dunbia. With facilities in England, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland we needed to strengthen our position further in Scotland to meet customer needs and provide the same level of service we do in other regions to all our stakeholders.

"We have excellent long-term business relationships with Sainsbury's and The Co-operative, and their recent commitment to source their complete Scottish red meat range from Dunbia highlights that the business model we use in other regions is working to the benefit of all supply chain partners; success we plan to mirror in Scotland."

On top of this latest expansion announcement Dunbia has experienced significant growth within the past two years. The purchase of two additional pork facilities in Crewe (formerly Heathfield Foods) and Mansfield (formerly G Woods & Sons) strengthened the company's pork division increasing capacity to source and produce British pork.

A long term deal was secured last year to supply Sainsbury's with fresh beef from a new site in Felinfach Wales, located just 10 miles from Dunbia's state-of-the-art lamb facility in Llanybydder which underwent a £12 million redevelopment in 2012, creating many business and logistic synergies between the two and bringing over 200 jobs to the area.

Also in 2013 Dunbia was awarded sole supply for lamb with Asda now positioning the company as the largest lamb processor in the UK, operating an extensive network of procurement officers sourcing from over 8,000 producers.