We take a look at the chequered past of the factory in Shaftesbury Street South
The early days of the factory when it was set up by Perween Warsi, founder of S & A Foods(Image: Derby Telegraph)
The address 37 Shaftesbury Street South is synonymous with food production, and looking into the history of the site, it has not been without its fair share of ups and downs, highlighted most recently by the announcement of the closure of the Bernard Matthews factory by Christmas, with the loss of 600 jobs.
It’s likely that many of the people being made redundant could well have been working at the same venue when a similar thing happened in 2013 (redundancies) and then again in 2015 (closure) when the company S & A Foods owned it.
The building was built and opened in 1996 – several years after the founder of S & A Foods, Perween Warsi, began making Indian finger foods on her kitchen table and supplying them to Indian takeaways in the Normanton area in the early 1980s.
Her big break came in 1986-87 when Asda started stocking her samosas and finger foods. To meet demand, she had to move production to the Shaftesbury Street South Factory, built in 1989, creating more than 100 jobs, and S & A Foods, named using the initial letters of her son’s names, Sadiq and Abid, was born.
By 1996, the success of S & A Foods led to the need for larger premises, and a new factory was built next to the original site and which led the company to be one of the UK’s largest manufacturers. The new factory was opened by then deputy Prime Minister Michael Heseltine.
The deputy Prime Minister Michael Heseltine opened the new factory next door to the original. He is pictured left with Dr Talib Warsi, husband of Perween Warsi, right
(Image: Derby Telegraph)
While Mrs Warsi had needed to expand the factory, finding investment was difficult and she accepted an offer to join the Hughes Food Group, which bought a share in the business, in the late 1980s.
Mrs Warsi is on record saying: “At the time it was the only option but giving up our independence was heart-breaking. When I was able to buy the company back years later (in 2004), it was a real pleasure.”
By 2005, it was estimated that Mrs Warsi was worth £23 million and she had become the 103rd richest Asian in Britain. In the same year, the company worked with Asda to produce a range of 92 new lines for its supermarkets.
In 2006, the company was turning over £73 million a year and by 2012, the company celebrated its 25th anniversary with a £75 million turnover, employing 600 people at the factory.
But in 2014, it was announced that the company was to ay off 13 per cent of its workforce, which had reduced to about 400 people by then – about 55 redundancies – to save costs.
The following year, 300 employees received the news that the company was “in challenging circumstances”. Some hourly staff were laid off, and others were left wondering what was happening.
A few days later, people were not being paid, and food production was suspended at the plant. By October 22, it was announced that the company would be closing with the loss of 350 jobs.
It appointed administrators after Asda decided not to renew its contract with the company at the start of October, leaving it without other major contracts.
Big change as 2 Sisters Food group arrive on the site(Image: ACJ Media)
By the end of November 2015, it was confirmed that Birmingham-based 2 Sisters Food Group – established in 1993 by Ranjit Singh Boparan – wanted to take over the factory. At the time, 2 Sisters owned Fox’s Biscuits, Goodfella’s Pizza, Holland’s Pies, Matthew Walker Christmas Puddings, Donegal Catch and Green Isle.
The transaction was confirmed in early December and it was hoped that many of the original S & A workers would get jobs there. when it opened in April 2016. In fact, 300 were employed by that date, producing barbecue, ready-to-cook and ready-to-eat poultry products.
It became known as a part of 2 Sisters’ “value added poultry” division, making a range of poultry-based products by late 2017 and by 2021 it became a Bernard Matthews site – the Norfolk turkey company had previously been bought by Ranjit Singh Boparan in 2016.
But now, everything has come full circle for the factory and its employees, as once again, hundreds of people are set to lose their jobs by Christmas.
The factory will close before the end of the year(Image: Google)
Staff at the factory employing around 600 people have been told by bosses that the Derby site will close before Christmas.
Workers at the Bernard Matthews site in Shaftesbury Street in Pear Tree received a letter confirming that the site would close on December 20.
The company have blamed significant financial losses, alongside a range of external economic challenges and the geopolitical environment, including Brexit, Covid, and conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East, which have all contributed to significantly impacting the site and its supply chain.”
So, who will be next to take on the Derby factory that has turned out millions of food items for almost 40 years? It is hoped that if someone does, then they can offer some hope and stability to a workforce and community that needs it.