We produce around a third of all poultry products eaten every day in the UK.
We're keen on hot cross buns. We make 30 million every year!
The total amount of pies made in a year would stretch from Accrington to the North Pole
We own more than 700 farms around the UK.
We employ more than 14,000 colleagues drawn from 36 different nationalities.
Careers in Meals
Click here to view our current salaried opportunities
Our Meal Solutions division consists of five sites: • Cavaghan & Gray (Carlisle), • Grimsby Soups and Sauces (Grimsby) • Gunstones (Dronfield) • RF Brookes (Rogerstone) • The Pizza Factory (Nottingham). Meal Solutions produces a range of products including hot cross buns, ready meals, pizza, soups and sauces and is wholly focused on own label products. Within Meals our vision is ‘To become the first choice premium prepared meals supplier in the UK’. We have five sites creating over 500 different products to feed our nation…we love our food and we love our people.
Our Sites
Cavaghan and Gray
Our site in Carlisle, known as Cavaghan & Gray, is a big part of the community and their history and we have 1500 colleagues work at the site. We produce the highest quality M&S products with a production capacity of 115 million units per year. We have a healthy turnover of £150 million and a £7million investment led to the creation of over 200 jobs. Our colleagues at Cavaghan & Gray played a major role in the ready meal revolution in the 1970s, launching three of the first-ever prepared ready meal products - cauliflower cheese, cottage pie and Cumberland pie – all for Marks & Spencer. Carlisle produces over 150 different products and in the last year more than 30 new products have been developed.
Grimsby Soups and Sauces
Our Recipe Dish site in Grimsby was established in 2001 and has grown from strength to strength, achieving an impressive BRC A* grade. Turning over £35 million, the site has a headcount of 350 which can flex during peak periods. We are the sole supplier of fresh chilled Soups for M&S. Our facility has four production lines plus one assembly line in operation and we produce 900K units per week. Our peak period is between September - March and manufacture 24/7 during Winter and 24/6 during the summer periods. Our customer profile at Recipe Dish is as follows: • M&S (70% of Total Site Sales); • Aldi (20% of Total Site Sales); • Morrison’s (10% of Total Site Sales). For Morrisons we produce 18 soups across the own label and ‘The Best’ ranges. Including the popular Vine Ripened Tomato and Red Lentil soup.
Gunstones Bakery
The Gunstones family started this business in 1862 and went on to open their first bakery in Sheffield in 1925. In 1950, they built a factory which is our current site in Dronfield. Gunstones produces some of the finest bread rolls, hot cross buns, iced buns and array of other baked products for some of the nation’s favourite high street retailers including Marks and Spencer and the Co-Op, along with providing some products to Samworth Brothers. We have around 550 colleagues, where the ability to work at pace and as part of a team is crucial to the site's £38 million turnover.
Rogerstone
Our Rogerstone site is one of the largest and most advanced food factories in Europe specifically designed for producing chilled and frozen recipe meals. The site has 1600 colleagues and £150 million turnover, pretty impressive numbers! The technology within the factory enables production of restaurant quality food for the consumer market. Rogerstone produces chilled ready meals such as Indian and Oriental, Italian, traditional British, nutritionally controlled and kids’ ranges. 2 Sisters has invested £10 million into extending the Rogerstone plant.
The Pizza Factory
The Pizza Factory in Nottingham is comprised of two sites, a bakery site known as Finch Close and a topping site known as Gateside. Finch Close is the home of the largest wood fired oven which uses volcanic lava stones to stone bake pizzas. This achieves ultra-high temperatures to produce exceptional bases. On average 1 million pizzas are created every week at the Pizza Factory made up of 50 different products.