M&S supplier secures 800 jobs with £38m investment in Sheffield factory

Pennine Foods, a food producer in Sheffield, is set to spend £38m on revamping its ready meals factory, safeguarding upto 800 jobs in the process.

Located near Crystal Peaks shopping centre, Pennine Foods makes approximately 750,000 ready meals a week for Marks & Spencer.

The multi-million pound investment in a new factory is part of Pennine Food’s parent company 2 Sisters Food Group’s wider £55m plan to transform its factories and cater for future growth plans.

After the total rebuild of Pennine Food’s factory is complete, which is slated for the end of 2017, the leftover funds will be used to renovate 2 Sisters’ Cavaghan & Gray site in Carlisle and the RF Brookes site at Rogerstone in South Wales.

Originally constructed in 1986, Pennine is a purpose-built site that has now reached its full capacity.

Ian Toal, the managing director of Pennine Foods, told BBC: “We’ve been here for nearly 30 years. We believe in the people who work here and the skills they’ve got, and we want to secure their future in the long term.”

2 Sisters said in a statement: “The transferred capacity will remain at those sites creating the opportunity for new ranges to be produced at Pennine once work is completed at the end of 2017. The refurbishment programme will help safeguard up to over 800 jobs at Pennine.”

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