Cranswick creates at least 200 jobs by developing breaded poultry facility in Hull

Food producer Cranswick today revealed that its full year revenue has broken the £2bn barrier at a time of unprecedented industry wide labour and supply chain challenges.

Cranswick, which has announced its audited preliminary results for the 52 weeks ended 26 March 2022, said its £26m Hull cooked bacon facility was successfully commissioned at the beginning of the year and is performing to plan.

The company said it had a strong merger and acquisition pipeline with three businesses acquired during the year.

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Major jobs boost for Hull as Cranswick develops £31m breaded poultry facility
Cranswick was formed in the early 1970s by farmers in East YorkshireCranswick was formed in the early 1970s by farmers in East Yorkshire
Cranswick was formed in the early 1970s by farmers in East Yorkshire
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Earlier this year, Cranswick revealed it was providing an economic boost for Yorkshire by developing a breaded poultry facility in Hull. Cranswick said this facility was successfully commissioned shortly after the year end.

Last year, Adam Couch Cranswick’s chief executive, said the new breaded poultry facility would create 200 jobs at an absolute minimum.

The statutory profit before tax was 13.2% higher at £129.9m and the full year dividend increased by 8.0%. Cranswick said it had a robust balance sheet with new £250m bank facility providing significant headroom following refinancing.

Mr Couch commented: "In a year which has been unprecedented in terms of the scale and breadth of challenges we have faced, we have delivered our strategy at pace and our long-term growth plan remains firmly on track.

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"We have worked tirelessly to support our customers while continuing to prioritise the safety and wellbeing of our colleagues across the business. We have consistently delivered exemplary service levels to our customers, supported our local communities and made great strides toward delivering many of our second nature sustainability targets.

"It is at times like this that partnerships and cooperation come to the fore, and I would like to thank our stakeholders and all our colleagues for their ongoing support, resilience and understanding during this very demanding period.

"The terrible events in Ukraine continue to profoundly impact our sector both at a humanitarian and an economic level. We are proactively supporting colleagues whose families may be affected by the conflict, including making donations, offers of employment and resettlement packages.

"Trading in the new financial year has been in line with the board's expectations. Notwithstanding the challenging operating conditions we continue to experience, our outlook for the Group for the current year is unchanged. We have a solid platform from which to continue Cranswick's successful long-term development."

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Mr Couch told The Yorkshire Post that the company intended to supply the food services arena by the end of the financial year.

He said he was "pushing the Government to do a bit more for food security to prioritise the home market".

He added: "Food security has never been more important.. we are acutely aware of the constraints the consumer is under."

In his chief executive's review, Mr Couch said: "Last year, I referred to FY21 being a year of unparalleled challenge and complexity. FY22 has, in many ways, been even more difficult. We continued to live with ongoing effects of the COVID-19 pandemic throughout this financial year.

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"We also faced the combined challenges of more severe labour shortages, particularly skilled butchers, further broad-based and rapid cost inflation, a shortage of CO2 and the social and economic impact of the Ukraine conflict.

"We have worked tirelessly to support our customers while continuing to prioritise the safety and wellbeing of our colleagues across the business."

"Alongside the humanitarian crisis, we have also responded to the economic impact of the conflict on our sector. The rapid escalation in soft commodity prices and wheat in particular, left unmitigated, would have been unsustainable for the pig farming industry.

"The price of cereals, which represent between 60 per cent and 70 per cent of the cost of growing an animal, increased by over 50 per cent in the immediate aftermath of the start of the conflict. With the support of our customers, we have partially reflected these higher input costs in the price we pay to both our own farming operations and our third-party producers."

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Cranswick was formed in the early 1970s by farmers in East Yorkshire to produce animal feed and has since evolved into a business which produces a range of predominantly fresh food, including fresh pork, poultry, convenience, gourmet products and pet food.

Cranswick employs more than 13,300 people and operates from 20 facilities in the UK.

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