A poultry joint venture between Cargill’s fresh chicken unit in the UK and Faccenda’s fresh chicken, turkey and duck business has been unveiled as Avara Foods.
With 6,000 employees, Avara will be a standalone business operating across multiple agricultural and operational centres. Both Cargill and Faccenda own a 50% stake in the company.
Faccenda, which supplies meat to the UK’s retail and foodservice sectors, processes more than 100 million chickens and turkeys a year with turnover of £500 million.
Initially announced last September, the deal was cleared in December by the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority.
Andy Dawkins has been named as Avara’s CEO. He said: “Launching Avara Foods brings together two successful businesses with high standards, shared values and strong reputations for building sustainable partnerships with customers, growers and suppliers.
“Now the opportunity is to take the best from both and provide our customers with great service and innovation from a trusted leader in fresh foods.”
“We believe that it is our strong values and talented people that make the difference and will be key to the success of our business now and in the future.
“Our first step is to make sure that there is a smooth transition as we bring together the two businesses as Avara Foods, and establish a solid platform for growth.”
Speaking at the announcement of the company last year, Cargill Poultry president Chris Langholz said: “We believe the two organisations are complementary. Combining into one entity allows us to build on our strengths, grow in the market and better serve our customers. The venture will facilitate greater opportunities to innovate and deliver new and exciting poultry products for consumers.”
Cargill’s UK business will continue to process and sell cooked poultry products from its site in Wolverhampton, as well as operating its poultry import, trading and distribution business.
Source: FoodBev
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