Faccenda Foods

Faccenda Foods Limited (until April 2014: Faccenda Group Limited)[1] is a privately owned UK business established in 1962 by Robin Faccenda, which supplies fresh poultry products.[2]

Industrial chicken farm operated by the Faccenda Group on the Marsh Road east of Burnham-on-Crouch

In 2018, Faccenda and Cargill opened a joint venture to take over their UK fresh poultry businesses, named Avara Foods, employing 6,000 people.[3]

Products

The vertically integrated business supplies chicken, turkey and duck meat and related products to supermarkets, restaurants and for export. Operations include egg-laying, hatching, processing and distribution.[4]

History

The group was owned by Hillesden Investments Ltd,[5] growing the business through acquisitions of Hinton Poultry, Perry Poultry and Webbs Country Foods, with an annual turnover of around £300m with 2,500 employees in 2005,[6] growing to a turnover of £365 million with a profit of £5 million in 2013.[7] In 2007–2008 the Faccenda Group had suffered a loss of £5 million.[8]

In 2008 it was the second-largest chicken processing company in the UK,[9] capable of processing 2 million chickens per week.[10]

Robin Faccenda, then chairman of Faccenda Group, invested £300,000 in a new student centre at Shropshire's Harper Adams agricultural college (now Harper Adams University), which was to open in 2010. A further £200,000 was to fund a long-term programme of student financial support.[11]

In 2014, Robin Faccenda and his family were listed by Farmers Weekly as the richest within the UK poultry industry.[12]

In 2017, Faccenda and Cargill announced a joint venture to take over their UK fresh poultry businesses.[13][14] In 2018, following agreement by the Competition and Markets Authority, they announced the name of the joint venture as Avara Foods, employing 6,000 people.[3]

Acquisitions and consolidation
The Faccenda poultry processing plant in Sutton Benger, closed in 2008

The purchase of the loss-making Webbs Country Foods in December 2000 required the closure of the Lymington, Hampshire factory, with a loss of 500 jobs.[15][16] However, 850 jobs were saved across the remaining three production facilities.

As part of a major consolidation, Faccenda closed the factory in Sutton Benger, Wiltshire in 2008, with the loss of 450 jobs, moving all production to the Brackley site in Northamptonshire.[9][17][18] At the same time, £3 million was invested in the Brackley factory,[19] and £2 million at its factories in Hortonwood (north Telford) and Dudley.[20][21][22][23][24]

In 2012 Faccenda bought Cranberry Foods, a turkey business in Scropton, Derbyshire.[7]

Court cases

In 2002, the company was fined £75,000 for polluting the River Avon from its Sutton Benger plant.[25][26] It was also fined £14,000 after 17-year-old worker lost his little finger and ring finger after he reached into a machine through a gap in the guarding mesh.[27]

In 2003, police arrested 20 Brazilians working illegally at the plant.[28]

The Environment Agency found in 2006 that the smell from the Brackley plant fell outside limits under the Pollution Prevention and Control regulations.[25][29]

In 2009, the company was fined £5000 under the Environmental Protection Act for incorrectly disposing of waste at Lyneham Farm, near Chippenham.[25] The court heard that, in April 2008, a routine visit to the poultry unit by Environment Agency inspectors found that hazardous waste was being bought from other sites and incorrectly stored. A further inspection in October showed that the hazardous waste, including fluorescent light tubes, was still being stored, mixed with other waste and then taken to a waste transfer site. The Environment Agency prosecutor told the court: "The defendant company consistently failed to comply with the advice given to it by the Environment Agency and tried to dispose of hazardous waste, despite being warned on previous occasions about the illegal mixing, storing and transportation of hazardous wastes."[30]

A case brought by Faccenda against a former sales manager, Faccenda Chicken v Fowler [1986], is a key legal case in confidentiality and trade secrets.[31][32]

References
  1. "FACCENDA FOODS LIMITED". Companies House. Retrieved 8 April 2020.
  2. "Robin Faccenda and family". Sunday Times. London. 26 April 2009. Retrieved 6 September 2009.
  3. "Cargill and Faccenda unveil Avara Foods joint venture". Food Manufacture. 31 January 2018. Retrieved 27 January 2019.
  4. "Supply chain". Avara Foods. Retrieved 8 April 2020.
  5. "Hillesden Investments". Fast Track. Retrieved 6 September 2009.
  6. "Faccenda Group". Food Manufacture. Archived from the original on 27 January 2008. Retrieved 6 September 2009.
  7. Ford, Richard (28 January 2014). "Profits soar at poultry group Faccenda". The Grocer. Retrieved 22 September 2014.
  8. "Robin Faccenda and family". The Times. London. 26 April 2009.
  9. Sibun, Jonathan; James Hall (21 April 2008). "Faccenda is a casualty of soaring food prices". Daily Telegraph. London. Retrieved 6 September 2009.
  10. Sibun, Jonathan (13 August 2008). "Britain's biggest private companies: Eat, drink and be profitable". Daily Telegraph. London. Retrieved 6 September 2009.
  11. "Robin Faccenda donates £0.5million to support students". Harper Adams University. 20 May 2009. Archived from the original on 27 May 2009. Retrieved 24 September 2009.
  12. Davies, Jake (14 July 2014). "Faccenda named poultry industry's richest". Farmers Weekly. Archived from the original on 22 September 2014. Retrieved 22 September 2014.
  13. Fortune, Aidan (25 September 2017). "New UK poultry business formed by Cargill and Faccenda Foods". globalmeatnews.com. Retrieved 27 January 2019.
  14. "Cargill merges with Faccenda Foods in new UK poultry venture". FoodBev Media. 25 September 2017. Retrieved 27 January 2019.
  15. "500 jobs go in chicken plant". Guardian. London. 11 January 2001. Retrieved 6 September 2009.
  16. "Food firm to axe 500 jobs". The Independent. 10 January 2001. Retrieved 6 September 2009.
  17. McPherson, Scott (11 June 2008). "Calls to save Faccenda". Wiltshire Gazette & Herald. Retrieved 6 September 2009.
  18. Adams, Katie (12 June 2008). "Union urges factory closure rethink". Wiltshire Times & Chippenham News. Retrieved 6 September 2009.
  19. "£3m to be invested in factory". Buckingham Today. 28 April 2008. Archived from the original on 12 February 2010. Retrieved 6 September 2009.
  20. "Jobs to go at chicken factory". BBC News. 15 April 2008. Retrieved 6 September 2009.
  21. "Faccenda Group hit by rising costs". The Manufacturer. 16 April 2008. Archived from the original on 6 October 2008. Retrieved 6 September 2009.
  22. "Chicken firm promises investment". BBC News. 11 June 2008. Retrieved 6 September 2009.
  23. Smith, Andrew (7 August 2008). "Faccenda to invest in two poultry processing plants". Farmers Weekly Interactive. Archived from the original on 4 September 2012. Retrieved 6 September 2009.
  24. Allison, Richard (5 May 2008). "Poultry plant to close as company restructures". Farmers Weekly Interactive. Archived from the original on 1 August 2012. Retrieved 6 September 2009.
  25. Mullaney, Lorraine (12 November 2012). "Chicken processor sued over 'sickening smells'". FOODmanufacture.co.uk. Retrieved 21 September 2014.
  26. "Poultry firm is fined £75,000 for pollution". Swindon Advertiser. 15 August 2002. Retrieved 6 September 2009.
  27. "Firm fined after teen worker is injured". Gazette & Herald. Trowbridge. 28 March 2002. Retrieved 27 January 2019.
  28. "Raid nets 20 immigrants". Swindon Advertiser. 11 September 2003. Retrieved 6 September 2009.
  29. "Factory chimney will rid town of 'fowl' smell". Banbury Guardian. 10 August 2006. Retrieved 6 September 2009.
  30. "Faccenda fined over waste disposal". meatinfo.co.uk. 23 November 2009. Retrieved 21 September 2014.
  31. Holland, James; Stuart Burnett (2007). "Protecting business secrets". Employment Law. Blackstone Legal Practice Course Guide. Oxford University Press. p. 465. ISBN 978-0-19-920546-2.
  32. Swarbrick, David (21 May 2014). "Faccenda Chicken Ltd -v- Fowler; CA 1986". swarb.co.uk. Retrieved 22 September 2014.
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