Plusfood, the European arm of the world’s biggest poultry exporter, is preparing for a major swoop on the UK retail poultry and red meat categories.

Plusfood currently supplies its branded frozen poultry products - Perfect For Eating In, Alyn Valley and Homestyle Kitchen - to Tesco UK, as well as to Tesco stores in Hungary, Czech Republic and Poland.

It is now pursuing listings with other retailers, and plans to move into the UK beef category.

Precise details remain under wraps, but Simon Bloys, Plusfood general manager for the UK and ROI, told The Grocer exclusively that the company was “in consultation with a major UK retailer” about a new Europe-wide branded range. Plusfood also wanted to move into beef in the UK as this was a category in which the company was already well established on the Continent, Bloys added.

In addition, Plusfood is eyeing the UK potential for a number of the 3,000 SKUs currently sold around the world by its parent company BRF, including pasta and dairy. “The long-term strategy is that we will be able to offer some of these products and skills to our EU and UK customers,” Bloys said.

Plusfood is part of the Brazilian-owned BRF, the second-largest meat exporter in the world. It has a processing site in Wrexham, but sources meat globally.

Bloys would not be drawn on specific UK growth targets, but said BRF had a five-year plan to double the size of its global business, which in 2010 posted a revenue of $14bn.

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