M&S ready meals

2 Sisters’ Cavaghan & Gray produces ready meals for M&S

2 Sisters Food Group has announced a “multi-million pound” expansion of its Cavaghan & Gray ready meals factory in Carlisle after winning a new contract to produce ready-to-cook fish meals.

The company said the investment would create “up to 90 new jobs” and would involve two new production lines and chilled storage facilities as well as the installation of potato-cooking, mash-processing and sauce-cooking equipment in a new 8,000 sq ft facility at its Riverbank site.

The new facility is expected to be operational by September, and will make 25 new ready-to-cook fish meals.

2 Sisters said it was making the investment on the back of a contract win with “a major customer” but declined to name the customer or quantify the size of its investment. 2 Sisters’ major customers include Marks & Spencer and Tesco .

Cavaghan & Gray makes about 80 million ready meals a year, including potato-based meals, fish cakes and crisp bakes. The new contract is for raw fish ready meals.

William Duncanson, director of the Carlisle site, said the new facility being built would secure “a lot of new jobs” for the area. “This announcement further strengthens our strategic partnership with our customers and it also reflects the confidence held by them in the whole team here in Carlisle,” he added.

Earlier this week, 2 Sisters’ holding company – Boparan Holdings – announced a 42% drop in like-for-like operating profits . It blamed its chilled division, which includes ready meals and food-to-go products, for the decline, saying its heavy investment in ready meals NPD in the wake of Horsegate had weighed down profits.

2 Sisters launched about 100 new ready meals last autumn in a bid to entice consumers back to the ready meals category following the horsemeat scandal. None of 2 Sisters’ products tested positive for horse DNA during the scandal, but consumer confidence in the wider ready meals category was hit.