Pilgrim’s Pride has heralded the closer integration of its UK businesses by creating a new operation to provide cross-functional support to its Moy Park, Pilgrim’s UK and Pilgrim’s Food Masters operations.
The JBS-owned protein giant said Pilgrim’s Shared Services would “consolidate existing UK-based transactional and group functions into a single business unit”, under the leadership of an executive leadership team – drawn from UK and US-based Pilgrim’s Pride Corporation businesses.
Up to 60 new jobs will be created by the launch of the new company.
The three existing businesses – acquired over the course of the past five years by Pilgrim’s – have a combined workforce of more than 20,000 people across 35 locations in the UK and Europe.
Pilgrim’s Food Masters was created out of Kerry Group’s UK and Irish consumer meats and meals business last summer and was the most recent business to be snapped up by Pilgrim’s, in a €819m deal in June 2021.
That purchase, combined with the acquisition plant-based brand Vivera by JBS in April 2021, means the Brazilian food giant has created a circa £2.5bn business in Europe since 2017.
“These new roles will be across functional areas including finance, IT, procurement, legal, treasury and audit to support the future growth and development of our businesses,” said Pilgrim’s HR & performance director Kirsty Wilkins.
“Pilgrim’s Shared Services Ltd will provide career opportunities for our current team members as well as providing up to 60 additional opportunities across our sites in Craigavon, Northern Ireland and Warwick in England.
“This is an exciting step for our businesses as they draw closer together in pursuit of our vision to become the best.”
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