Faccenda named poultry industry’s richest

The inaugural rich list from The Grocer magazine – ranking the wealth of companies and entrepreneurs in the food and drink sector – has named the Faccenda family as richest within the poultry industry.

Robin Faccenda and family were listed at number 42 of 95, with the trade magazine giving an estimated worth of £213m – just behind Malcolm Walker, co-founder of supermarket Iceland.

It said Hillesden Investments, which trades as Faccenda, saw record profits of £29.5m in 2012-13 and is worth £200m. An additional £13m is added to include the net assets of Faccenda Farms.

Next wealthiest and well-known poultrymen are Peter Dean and Michael Kent, who share ownership of Britain’s biggest egg seller, Noble Foods. They are listed at joint 53rd with an estimated fortune of £160m each.

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2 Sisters Food Group’s Ranjit Singh and family follow in 64th position with their wealth put at £130m. The listing explains this is lower than might be expected because of uncertainties over debt and operating at a loss. He is described as “responsible for one of grocery’s most extraordinary rags-to-riches stories”.

Closely following Mr Singh is James Hook and family, of PD Hook (hatcheries), which has a long-standing sales agreement with 2 Sisters, and the joint venture Hook 2 Sisters. Its worth is put at £115m and placed 72nd.

Aside from Noble Foods, just one other egg producer makes the list: Scotland’s Glenrath Farms, owned by John Campbell, which comes in at 84th with an estimated worth of £95m.

Philip Beresford, who has compiled The Sunday Times’ Rich List for the past 26 years, was employed to apply the same methodology to companies in the UK food and drink sector.

Listed businesses’ valuation at the end of May 2014 were taken as a base, and comparable private companies afforded similar value “albeit, allowing a certain discount for goodwill”.

Factors such as recent profits, dividends and “general financial health”, were also taken into account to arrive at the estimates.