Moy Park to buy rival poultry firm

Poultry firm Moy Park is to buy rival O’Kane Poultry Limited, creating a merged company that will employ 8,500 people.

Moy Park's chief executive Nigel Dunlop said the merger would offer opportunities for market development, and give Moy Park a foothold in the turkey meat sector.

"The poultry markets of Ireland, the UK and Europe are growing," he said. "By bringing the resources and expertise of Moy Park and O'Kane Poultry together, we are creating a business with the scale and sustainability of supply needed to meet the very significant growth opportunities that exist across Europe."

Chairman of O'Kane Poultry Billy O'Kane said the deal would be positive for the agri-food industry and producers who supply O'Kane Poultry.

Moy Park and O'Kane Poultry currently sell around 200 million chickens and 1.5 million turkeys per year.

Part of part of the Brazilian food company Marfrig, Moy Park is Northern Ireland's largest food processing company and employs more than 7,000 people across its operations in Northern Ireland, England, France and Holland.

O'Kane Poultry was established in 1932 in Ballymena and employs almost 1,500 people.