North Wales-based poultry processor Maelor Foods is to ramp up production by at least a quarter after planning restrictions capping its capacity were lifted by Wrexham Council.
The processor, which turns over combined £500m a year alongside sister business Salisbury Poultry, opened its Wrexham site in 2017.
The plant has since seen “rapid growth”, only curtailed by the planning constraints. Supported by a Welsh Government grant, the family-owned business said it had “transformed an idle factory on the edge of Wrexham Industrial Estate into a state-of-the-art processing plant”.
By 2020, it had doubled throughput from 400,000 to 800,000 birds per week. Early in 2021, Maelor reached its planning-imposed ceiling of a million birds per week.
Since then, demand from retail, foodservice, and manufacturing customers “has consistently outstripped available capacity”, it revealed.
And with demand showing no sign of slowing, the lifting of restrictions last month would enable Maelor Foods to play “an even more vital role in the UK’s food supply chain, supporting jobs, British farming, and food security across the country”, it said.
The decision – made after Maelor pledged environmental investment and improved control measures – is set to allow the business to ultimately double production.
Maelor Foods’ initial target is to increase production by 25% over the next 18 months. It described the move as a “crucial step in meeting growing demand for fresh British chicken”, particularly given the current tightness in domestic poultry supply. That’s been driven by a sector-wide move to 20% lower stocking densities, also implemented by Maelor.
The business sources poultry from 60 farms across England and Wales, employing 1,350 staff across the Maelor and Salisbury operations. It supplies own-label chicken to a number of major supermarkets and leading foodservice operators.
The supplier vowed to now “open the door to other growers who have expressed a desire to join us”, though it also warned planning regulations remained a significant challenge for producers – who, given the reduction in stocking densities – needed to invest in additional production sheds to further expansion.
Loosening planning restrictions – as promised by the government in its drive to cut red tape – was now required in order for the UK poultry sector to meet its production potential, said Ricky Mehta, site director for Maelor Foods, who added the lifting of the company’s production restrictions marked a “hugely important moment” for the business.
“We’ve invested significantly in our people, our infrastructure, and our processes to ensure that we are not only meeting demand, but leading the industry in responsible, sustainable poultry production,” he added.
“Our ethos is mirrored in our sister business, Salisbury Poultry, where our family values and the mantra of best available technology continue to positively differentiate us in what is a hugely competitive sector.”
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