Coming on the back of couple of challenging years, Moy Park still firmly has becoming Northern Ireland’s first £2bn business in its sights.
“Undoubtedly… our ambition is still around growth,” Justin Coleman, director, Moy Park tells Ulster Business.
“And from a growth standpoint, given that we operate in a in a category that’s got those key elements around affordability, health, versatility from a consumer standpoint.
“And so there’s absolutely no reason we shouldn’t crash through the next glass ceiling.”
Moy Park is back on top as Northern Ireland’s largest firm – with turnover of £1.88bn and pre-tax profits of £18.7m for the year ending 2022.
It fell off the top position in last year’s Ulster Business Top 100 Northern Ireland Companies, in association with KPMG – coming in at the number two spot.
And looking ahead, Justin says the firm will return with stronger numbers again in the recent past trading period.
“It’s out the back of a number of very difficult years… starting with the pandemic,” Justin said.
“Looking back, from a trading standpoint, the pandemic was very good for food businesses and [setting aside] the societal impact for a minute.
“And then stepped in to two years of hyperinflation, which didn’t abate.
“And so, if you’re comparing year-over-year, coming out the back of a reconfigured business post inflation, [it’s a] good set of numbers and back to our sort of trading expectations, and where we’d expect [the company] to be.”
The poultry processor has also undergone a restructure of late from its parent company JBS.
And growth is still very much Moy Park’s ambition, according to Justin.
“When we when we think about growth… there will be there’ll be naturally Northern Ireland elements and a UK element,” he says.
“Our ambition would very much be continued growth – part of our DNA is growth as an organisation, and has been for a long time and I don’t see that changing in any way, shape, or form.”
Looking ahead to the barriers and challenges ahead, Justin says – parking inflation and costs – that environmental issues and targets will come to the fore.
“If we look at the more macro impacts, the role that and the environmental challenges coming towards us, be it legislatively consumer led, globally led,” he says.
“We need to be in the middle of that conversation and then linking that to the animal welfare debate and from a consumer standpoint, linking environment and animal welfare in the same sentence is probably where they’re at.
“And so I think over the next couple of years, our narrative, our role in that space is going to be really important to retain, at the broadest level, chicken’s role in terms of offering great versatility value and help for customers and consumers.
“That’s really important. And then also the role of continuing to focus on skilled people, the availability of skilled people to do skilled jobs in in our organisation.
“So you kind of take a macro view around the role we play, and what’s our right to be involved in intensive animal agriculture, and coupling that with really skilled people, and how we get people to do that.”
And on the green and environmental front, Justin says it’s hard-wired into the firm’s targets for 2040.
“There’s not a day goes by that we don’t talk about it,” he says.
“I think what’s more important is how we remain aligned to the legislative agenda… and at a broader level, how we remain aligned to a customer agenda.”