Ranjit Singh Boparan (Punjabi: ਰਨਜੀਤ ਸਿੰਘ ਬੋਪਰਨ, born 24 August 1966) is a British businessman, and the founder and owner of 2 Sisters Food Group with his wife Baljinder Kaur Boparan. Known as the "Chicken King" in the West Midlands,[1] he has an estimated personal fortune of £600 million.
Ranjit Singh Boparan | |
|---|---|
| Born | 24 August 1966 Bilston, West Midlands, England |
| Title | Founder and owner of 2 Sisters Food Group |
| Spouse | Baljinder Kaur Boparan |
| Children | Antonio Singh Boparan |
Early career
editBorn in August 1966[2] in Bilston, West Midlands, Boparan left school aged 16 with few qualifications.[1] He started working in a butchers shop, and founded 2 Sisters Food Group in 1993 with a small bank loan.[1] Still resident today in the West Midlands, he began expanding West Bromwich-based 2 Sisters Food Group through its holding company Boparan Holdings, which he jointly owns with his wife.
Boparan Holdings
editBoparan Holdings is the group company, which owns all of the couple's subsidiary holdings. An undercover investigation by ITV News and The Guardian in September 2017 found workers illegally changing the slaughter dates — and hence the use-by dates — at a 2 Sisters plant in West Bromwich.[3]
2 Sisters Food Group
edit2 Sisters Food Group is a Birmingham, England-based food-manufacturing company.
Established in 1993 by Ranjit Singh Boparan as a frozen retail cutting operation, it has grown rapidly through acquisition and expanded to cover 36 manufacturing sites in the UK, eight in the Netherlands, five in Ireland and one in Poland.
The group employs 23,000 people, and annual sales of £3.28 billion. It is listed 9th on the 2017 Sunday Times Top Track 100. It is the largest food company in the UK by turnover.
Northern Foods
editFollowing a period of asset disposal, on 17 November 2010 Northern Foods announced it was merging with Irish ready-made meals supplier, Greencore. According to industry web site, just-food.com, the company's shares rose more than 20% that day. The new company was to be called Essenta,[4] with headquarters in Ireland but listed on the London Stock Exchange.
However, after building up a 25% share holdings, on 21 January 2011 Boparan announced a £341M bid to buy Northern Foods,[5] which succeeded in gaining sufficient shareholder support to proceed. This resulted in the appointment of Boparan as the company's chairman in April 2011.[6] On 13 May 2011 the company was delisted from the London Stock Exchange, and taken private under Boparan Holdings.
FishWorks
editFishWorks is a seafood restaurant chain, originally started by Mitch Tonks.[7]
Harry Ramsden's
editIn April 2006, Compass Group sold its specialist airports and railways division SSP for £1,822 million to EQT AB of Sweden, including the Harry Ramsden's fish and chip shop chain. After attempting a turnaround under new MD Chris Sullivan in 2008,[8][9] on 19 January 2010 SSP sold Harry Ramsden's to Boparan Ventures Ltd, the private investment vehicle of Boparan.[10] BVL announced plans to open another 100 units in the next five years, and create 600 new jobs.[11]
Cinnamon Collection
editIn January 2016, Boparan Restaurant Holdings (BRH) acquired the three-strong Cinnamon Collection chain of restaurants in London, an upmarket Indian outlet.[12]
Grove Farm Turkey
editIn April 2016, the Boparan Private Office acquired Irish Turkey business Grove Farm.[13]
Giraffe Restaurants
editIn June 2016, the supermarket chain Tesco announced that it was to sell its 15-venue Giraffe Restaurants chain to Boparan Restaurants, for "an undisclosed sum", three years after it bought the chain for £50 million.[14]
Bernard Matthews
editIn September 2016, it was announced Singh's Private Office (Boparan Private Office) was to acquire turkey producer Bernard Matthews for £87.5m.[15]
Ed's Easy Diner
editIn October 2016, Singh's Private Office added to its restaurant and dining portfolio with the acquisition of part of the 1950s-themed restaurant chain Ed's Easy Diner.[16]
Family and personal life
editRanjit Boparan received an honorary doctorate from Nottingham Trent University in July 2015, "in recognition of his significant contribution to the food manufacturing industry, to education and the development of his workforce, and for his philanthropic interests."[17]
In April 2008, his son Antonio Singh Boparan was sentenced at Birmingham Crown Court to 21 months in jail for dangerous driving which had led to the severe life-changing injury of a child, Cerys Edwards, who was a passenger in a car he struck. In February 2012, Edwards' family was awarded compensation of £5M, and a sum of £450k per annum every year for her life for Cerys' care, from Boparan's insurance company.[18] Cerys died at Birmingham Children's Hospital on 17 October 2015, aged 9.[19] He received a 12 months prison sentence[20] in March 2019.
References
edit- ^ a b c Wachman, Richard (13 March 2011). "Ranjit Boparan, the chicken king, looks set to rule the roost at Northern Foods". The Guardian. London.
- ^ "Ranjit Singh BOPARAN - Personal Appointments (free information from Companies House)". Beta.companieshouse.gov.uk. Retrieved 3 April 2017.
- ^ Goodley, Simon (28 September 2017). "The chicken run: blood, sweat and deceit at a UK poultry plant". The Guardian. Retrieved 28 September 2017.
- ^ "In the spotlight - The Greencore, Northern Foods merger". just-food.com. 17 November 2010. Retrieved 17 November 2010.
- ^ Boparan wins Northern Foods with £341m bid FT.com
- ^ Ltd, Insider Media. "Boparan becomes Northern Foods chairman". insidermedia.com. Retrieved 28 September 2017.
- ^ Terry Durack (24 August 2008). "His FishWorks chain hit the rocks, but Mitch Tonks is back with a small-fry operation that's making a big splash". The Independent. Retrieved 3 April 2017.
- ^ "SSP – The Food Travel Experts". Foodtravelexperts.com. 4 April 2009. Archived from the original on 11 July 2011. Retrieved 26 February 2010.
- ^ "Fantastic feast for the girls – Blackpool Today". Blackpoolgazette.co.uk. Retrieved 26 February 2010.
- ^ "SSP – The Food Travel Experts". Foodtravelexperts.com. 15 November 2007. Archived from the original on 24 January 2013. Retrieved 26 February 2010.
- ^ "Chicken magnate gobbles up Harry Ramsden's with promises of 100 new outlets". Yorkshire Post. Retrieved 26 February 2010.
- ^ http://imbibe.com/news-articles/general/cinnamon-collection-acquired-by-harry-ramsdens-owner/ / [bare URL]
- ^ "2 Sisters' Ranjit Singh to buy Irish turkey business - Farmers Weekly". Fwi.co.uk. 20 April 2016. Retrieved 3 April 2017.
- ^ Lauren Davidson (10 June 2016). "Tesco to offload Giraffe restaurants and its Turkish business as sell-off continues". The Telegraph. Telegraph.co.uk. Retrieved 3 April 2017.
- ^ Noli DinkovskiNoli Dinkovski, 21 September 2016 (21 September 2016). "Turkey giant Bernard Matthews purchased by Ranjit Boparan". Foodmanufacture.co.uk. Retrieved 3 April 2017.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^ "JavaScript is disabled in your browser". Thecaterer.com. 12 October 2016. Retrieved 3 April 2017.
- ^ Stones, Mike (20 July 2015). "2 Sisters boss gets award from university". Food Manufacture. London.
- ^ "Cerys Edwards injured by speeding driver awarded £5m". BBC West Midlands. 23 February 2012. Retrieved 23 February 2012.
- ^ "Cerys Edwards: Brain-damaged girl dies nine years after crash caused by multi-millionaire's son". The Telegraph. 20 October 2015.
- ^ "Criminal who left a baby brain damaged becomes director of one of Britain's biggest food companies". independent.co.uk. 1 August 2017. Retrieved 28 September 2017.