The UK’s main supplier of supermarket chicken has shut one of its factories for two weeks after an outbreak of coronavirus among the plant’s staff.
Public Health Wales said 58 Covid-19 cases had been confirmed at 2 Sisters Food Group’s facility in Llangefni, Anglesey, which employs about 560 people.
2 Sisters said in a statement: “We will not tolerate any unnecessary risks, however small, for our existing loyal workforce at the facility. We have worked in close collaboration in the past week with Public Health Wales, Anglesey council, the Health and Safety Executive, FSA [Food Standards Agency] and the Unite union, who have all offered great advice, scientific knowledge and support, and we thank them for their help and guidance, which has informed this decision.”
The firm, which has eight other sites in its poultry division and supplies all of the main supermarkets as well as fast-food chains such as KFC, is no stranger to operating under reduced capacity. In 2017, after a Guardian and ITV News undercover investigation raised questions about food standards, the company suspended production at its West Bromwich chicken plant for five weeks in order to deal with the problems. The company said at the time the closure would cost it up to £500,000 a week.
United welcomed the move to close the Anglesey facility and predicted similar problems could arise throughout the meat processing sector.
Bev Clarkson, Unite’s national officer for food, drink and agriculture, said: “The relaxation of social distancing has been brought in too soon; we predicted a spike in the meat industry. You only have to look at what has happened in America and Germany to know that it would happen here. Measures need to be taken now by the government to stop further spikes within the sector.”
2 Sisters was founded in 1993 with a bank loan taken out by Ranjit Singh Boparan, who left school at 16 with few qualifications and spent his early working life employed in a butcher’s shop.
He has built the business into one of the UK’s largest food companies and has also acquired a collection of restaurants including Giraffe and Ed’s Easy Diner. He bought the Carluccio’s chain last month.
