2 Sisters Food Group

2 Sisters' web site notes that: "Headquartered in Birmingham 2 Sisters Food Group was established in 1993 by our Chief Executive, Ranjit Singh, and remains a privately owned company... Today we are a diversified food manufacturer with strong market positions in Poultry, Chilled, Bakery and Frozen categories. We focus on delivering the highest quality product to our customers at the lowest cost. Our UK customers include Aldi, Asda, British Airways, Costa, Harrods, KFC, Lidl, Marks & Spencer, Morrisons, Sainsburys, Tesco and Waitrose.

"2 Sisters Food Group has 35 manufacturing sites in the UK and Ireland, six in Holland and one in Poland. The group employs around 18,000 people and annual sales are now over £2.1 billion following the acquisition of Northern Foods in April 2011.

"Although we are predominantly a private label manufacturer, we produce a number of branded products including Buxted, Devonshire Red, Fox’s Biscuits, Goodfella’s Pizza, Matthew Walker Christmas puddings and Green Isle vegetables."

They acquired Vion UK in March 2013.

Operations in India
In July 2012 "UK food company 2 Sisters Food Group has confirmed that it is in contact with Indian retail giant Reliance Retail as it considers its options for expansion in the country."

People

 * July 2011, 2 Sisters announced the appointment of Charles L. Allen CBE as its Non-Executive Chairman.
 * May 2012, 2 Sisters announced the appointment of Olivier Goudineau as Managing Director, India.
 * May 2012, 2 Sisters announced the appointment of Andy Stapley as Divisional Director, UK Poultry.
 * May 2012, 2 Sisters announced the appointment of Veepul Patel to the new role of Divisional Director Cakes, following his successful leadership of the recently acquired RF Brookes / Avana cake and chilled desserts business during the business review period.

Board
Accessed April 2013:


 * Sir Charles Allen - Chairman
 * Andrew Cripps - Non Executive Director
 * Mark Hunter - Non Executive Director
 * David Gregory - Non Executive Director
 * Ranjit Singh - CEO
 * Steve Henderson - Group Finance Director

Board
"Following the acquisition of Northern Foods in April [2011], Boparan made substantial changes at board level. Non-executive chairman Anthony Hobson resigned, along with non-executive directors David Nish, Orna Ni-Chionna, Tony Illsley and Sandra Turner, and Boparan was appointed non-executive chairman, with ljinder Boparan, Kuldip Kular, Jon Silk and Graham Hunter appointed as directors."

Critical History

 * Michael Barker, "Intensifying Exploitation and the Fightback at RF Brookes", Leicester Socialist Party, June 21, 2012.

Strike Action Against 2 Sisters

 * Unite, "Unite urges Two Sisters to reinstate workers, their union reps and act on racial abuse allegations", September 3, 2009.
 * Esme Choonara, "Support grows for Two Sisters fight", Socialist Worker, November 3, 2009.
 * Unite, "Unite hails Budgens' boss as ‘local hero’ for dumping 2 Sisters produce", November 13, 2009.
 * "South Wigston pie factory staff strike over cuts in pay-offs", Leicester Mercury, June 14, 2012.
 * "Hundreds of workers go on strike at R F Brookes, in South Wigston", Leicester Mercury, June 15, 2012.
 * Julian Whittle, "Dispute over terms and conditions changes at Carlisle factory could escalate", News and Star, July 2, 2012.
 * Julian Whittle, "Carlisle council to intervene in Cavaghan & Gray factory dispute?", News and Star, July 12, 2012. (Lee Sherriff)
 * Jon Griffin, "Angry workers strike over pay and conditions at 2 Sisters Food Group", Birmingham Post, December 4, 2012.
 * Nicholas Robinson, "Strike ballot at 2 Sisters site", meatinfo, 1 March, 2013
 * "Timeline of 2 Sisters’ Recent Attacks on Workers", Leicester Socialist Party, Last Updated May 2013.

Contact
Web: http://www.2sfg.com

Related Sourcewatch

 * Cavaghan & Gray
 * A La Carte Recruitment - used for strike busting (Leicester June 2012)
 * Peter Barr, chairman of VION UK
 * Purely Nutrition