[2][3][4] Established in 1993 by entrepreneur Ranjit Singh Boparan as a frozen retail poultry cutting operation, the company now covers 20 sites in the UK, six in the Netherlands, one in Ireland and one in Poland.

[7] In June 2007 the group made four acquisitions – including Joseph Mitchell (Letham) of Forfar; Challenger Foods of Sunderland, where 400,000 chicken fillets per week are prepared for sandwich and pizza market; and the Tulip facility in Morecambe.

LTM EBITDA for the year was £161.2m[14] In January 2018, 2 Sisters reached agreement with Nomad Foods on the sale of its Goodfellas Pizza brand for £200m.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said it was "deeply concerned" about the issue and that the sheer scale of the mortalities had prompted an investigation by officials.

The company strongly disputed this claim, pointing out the footage did not prove the chicken entered the human food chain.

The Food Standards Agency initially cleared the factory of any wrongdoing but then admitted a breach of regulations had occurred though the company was not fined.

The initiative, claimed to be costing £10m, would encompass the entire supply chain from farm through to consumer, using a variety of interventions including blast surface chilling and 'no touch' packaging.

[24] The CEO of the FSA, Jason Feeney, said: "Our investigation found some areas for improvement but the issues were resolved promptly by the company, who co-operated fully, and at no point did we find it necessary to take formal enforcement action".