Grampian Country Foods was a

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

-based

meat processing The meat-packing industry (also spelled meatpacking industry or meat packing industry) handles the slaughtering, processing, packaging, and distribution of meat from animals such as cattle, pigs, sheep and other livestock. Poultry is generally no ...

company, now part of the UK division of

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

cooperative A cooperative (also known as co-operative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democratically-control ...

Vion NV Vion N.V. is an internationally operating company of the meat and food industry with headquarters in Boxtel, Netherlands. It is among the largest meat producers in Europe, with production sites in the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium. In 2021, the ...

. Established in 1980 by a Scottish farming family, Grampian expanded quickly through pan-UK acquisition. Moving its headquarters to

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

and then

Leeds Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by populati ...

, it became the UK's biggest

pig meat Pork is the culinary name for the meat of the domestic pig (''Sus domesticus''). It is the most commonly consumed meat worldwide, with evidence of pig husbandry dating back to 5000 BCE. Pork is eaten both freshly cooked and preserved; ...

processor. Its food production unit produced own-brand products mainly for the UK's largest

supermarket A supermarket is a self-service Retail#Types of outlets, shop offering a wide variety of food, Drink, beverages and Household goods, household products, organized into sections. This kind of store is larger and has a wider selection than earli ...

chains. From 2002 to 2006 it was the largest company by sales figures in Scotland. Faced with financial difficulties from the late 1990s, it was sold to Vion in January 2008. During its final years before being sold the company was headed by Andrew Black from Armadale. When fully integrated into VION's UK business, the business employed 14,000 people. The former

Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is bo ...

business was now controlled from the Netherlands. VION announced on 19 November 2012 that it planned to exit its UK operations. In March 2013 the

2 Sisters Food Group 2 Sisters Food Group, a subsidiary of Boparan Holdings Ltd, is a privately owned food manufacturing company with head offices in Birmingham, England primarily focusing on private label manufacturing for retailer and food service markets. Establ ...

announced the acquisition of the UK arm of VION. In June 2013 the acquisition was granted unconditional clearance by the

Office of Fair Trading The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) was a non-ministerial government department of the United Kingdom, established by the Fair Trading Act 1973, which enforced both consumer protection and competition law, acting as the United Kingdom's economic ...

(OFT).

References

British companies established in 1980 British companies disestablished in 2008 Food manufacturers of Scotland Meat companies of the United Kingdom 1980 establishments in Scotland 2008 disestablishments in Scotland Defunct companies of Scotland Companies based in Aberdeenshire Companies based in Edinburgh Manufacturing companies based in Leeds {{Scotland-company-stub