British poultry giant Bernard Matthews is confirmed to be bidding for Norfolk business Banham Poultry.
The company, which employs almost 1,000 people has been family-run since it was founded almost 60 years ago but now finds itself facing administration should no buyer be found.
It’s understood a major factor in any sale will be the retention of jobs in the area.
If successful, a spokesman for Bernard Matthews said the firm would be able to immediately transfer 160 employees who work in Banham’s agricultural base. However, other workers would be moved elsewhere.
“It would secure all these roles, and therefore many other jobs in the supply chain,” the spokesman said.
“Additionally, we are very hopeful all remaining Banham colleagues can be redeployed across our sites in East Anglia, where the group of companies has seven locations employing around 3,000 people.”
Yesterday, two men died at the plant in a suspected chemical or gas leak. The two men, aged in their 30s and 40s, are understood to have been subcontractors working for a pest control company at the time.
The news comes just two years after Bernard Matthews itself was purchased by the Boparan Private Office, part of the 2 Sisters Food Group.
The firm, which was founded by Bernard Matthews in 1950, has almost 60 farms throughout Norfolk, Suffolk and Lincolnshire.
It employs around 2,200 staff and processes around seven million turkeys a year. The firm, best known for its Turkey Twizzlers, hit troubled times in 2016 when it revealed pre-tax losses of £5.2 million.
However, is said to be “back on track” and back in expansion mode. Just a few months ago, the company announced it had secured a major supermarket deal and expected to employ an extra 400 people.
Bernard Matthews also has operations in Germany and Hungary.
