2 Sisters creates 90 new jobs in factory expansion plan
The development features the construction of a new 743m² factory, after 2 Sisters won significant new business with an undisclosed major customer. The new factory will house potato cooking and mash processing equipment, sauce cooking capability, two production lines and new chilled storage facilities.
Scheduled to open by September, the new factory will supply 20% of additional capacity at the existing site. The plant will be the hub for 25 additional product lines in the ‘Ready to Cook’ fish meal category and will boost the manufacturer’s ready meals volume by an extra 10M meals a year.
The new jobs
The new jobs will range from production staff through to skilled production, management, engineering and technical roles.
Cavaghan & Gray produces a number of product categories including potato-based ready meals, vegetable accompaniments, fish cakes and crisp bakes and makes more than 80M every year.
William Duncanson, Carlisle site director, said the expansion was fantastic news for the business. “This announcement further strengthens our strategic partnership with our customers and it also reflects the confidence held by them in the whole team here in Carlisle,” said Duncanson.
'New lines in stores'
“We’ll now be focusing on the hard work ahead to get the new facility up-and-running and get the new lines in stores for later this year.”
Carlisle MP John Stevenson said the announcement was “tremendous news” for Carlisle. “It demonstrates confidence in our city from a major business and shows a commitment to Carlisle, which is very welcome,” he said.
Earlier this week 2 Sisters’ holding company Boparan Holdings revealed in its second-quarter trading update its losses had grown to £27.5M from £12.3M a year ago.
In a statement accompanying the results ceo Ranjit Boparan said: “We continue to invest in capacity and to fuel our growth and to address our cost base, which means we have to make tough decisions and following the exit of two sites in first quarter, regrettably on February 7 2014, we announced consultation on the future of the sites at Corby and Avana.”
Read why one leading analyst believes 2 Sisters' investment was urgently needed here.
Meanwhile, don’t miss the leading article – ‘Has 2 Sisters bitten off more than it can chew?’ – in this month’s edition of our sister title Food Manufacture.
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