While it’s baffling that a global meat giant such as Vion cannot succeed in the UK, today’s news that it is to exit the UK will come as no surprise to anyone who’s been keeping an ear to the ground in the industry - or following the coverage in The Grocer, for that matter.

Last month, the company announced the closure of its Hall’s of Broxburn pig processing site, at a cost of 1,700 jobs. And later in October, Vion angered suppliers - revealed by The Grocer - when they discovered it had sold its pizza arm, Paramount Foods, to Arena Ventures in July. Some Paramount suppliers said they only realised the deal had taken place when the company entered administration on 5 October.

And this week, The Grocer broke news of more turbulence, as Debbie & Andrew’s founders Debbie and Andrew Keeble stepped down from the board of the Vion-owned brand. There were doubts - naturally enough - about where the brand’s sausages might be made after the sale of the Hall’s of Broxburn site.

Since the meat giant arrived on these shores in the late 1990s with the acquisition of Key Country Foods, it had built up a strong business - employing 13,000 people at 38 sites across the UK. But now it claims it wants to focus on its core markets in the Netherlands and Germany.

So where did it all go wrong? And just why did the UK prove such a stumbling block for a global company that was able to turn over €9.5bn last year? Pick up a copy of The Grocer this weekend for a full analysis.

Topics