Sales at poultry firm top €1bn

Global sales at Irish poultry firm Moy Park hit £1.07bn (€1.35bn), according to its annual results for last year.

Employing 10,500 people across 13 facilities in the North, England, France, and Netherlands, the poultry firm delivered a sales lift of 16.4% on the previous year.

The company said that while margins for the year were impacted by unprecedented levels of inflation which significantly increased feed and other raw material costs, Moy Park continued to deliver a positive operating profit of £7.4m and pre-tax profit of £4.8m.

Chief executive Nigel Dunlop said: “Exceeding £1bn in sales revenues is a landmark achievement for Moy Park. We have continued to deliver a positive financial performance in the face of difficult trading conditions.”

Mr Dunlop said increasing inflation costs are the greatest challenge Moy Park faces. “We have continued to invest in our business and our brands to meet the current and future needs of our customers and consumers.

“In 2011 we invested £32m in capital expenditure bringing the total investment in the business over the last four years to £106m. By investing in our industry-leading farming base and our manufacturing facilities we believe we can continue to improve efficiencies further while increasing capacity to meet future customer requirements.”