East Anglian 2 Sisters site to close
One of 2 Sisters’ East Anglian poultry processing plants is set to close, the company has revealed, and a 45-day consultancy has been launched with staff.
The site in Haughley Park roasts chickens for supermarkets, and was bought by 2 Sisters in 2005.
Until 2011 it also coated chicken, but this process was moved to the nearby Thetford site where the group had invested £30m. Haughley Park continued production and was labelled the firm’s “centre of excellence” for roasting chicken for supermarkets.
However, it is understood its closure has been ordered because the site was aged and is no longer viable.
“Sadly, Haughley Park is an ageing site with many challenges and it does not enable us to fulfil our commitment to sustainable manufacturing,” said Olivier Goudineu, a divisional managing director at 2 Sisters.
“Our immediate priority now is to have meaningful discussions with our colleagues during this consultation period to see if other solutions can be found.”
Haughley Park is one of five plants that the firm operates in East Anglia, the others being Eye and Flixton in Suffolk; Thetford in Norfolk; and Basildon and Witham in Essex.
The group says it employs around 2,000 people in the region, and it is understood that Haughley Park has about 430 members of staff, as well as using a pool of around 250 agency workers.