UK-based farmer co-op ANM Group has brought together its three different meat processing companies into one business unit, ANM Meat Division.
 
ANM has moved to incorporate Scotch Premier Meat, Yorkshire Premier Meat and Charcuterie – three businesses that supply red meat products from primal cuts to processed meat for convenience food – into the new unit.
 
David Fleetwood, the MD of ANM Meat Division, insisted the move had not been driven by cost and had been made to emphasise the company’s status as a co-operative offering UK-sourced products.
 
“We are bringing them together to reflect the changing attitudes of consumers,” Fleetwood told just-food at the IFE food-industry exhibition in London. “The provenance of food is so much more important [and] today we are the only mainland-based co-operative in the meat industry.”

Fleetwood added: “We are the only company able to control the process from farmyard to plate because our co-operative status of 7,000 farmer members, allied to owning Europe’s largest inhouse auction facility, along with our processing expertise, means we are the real answer to real provenance oversight.”
 
Scotch Premier Meat supplies beef, lamb, pork and venison to butchers, wholesalers and caterers. Yorkshire Premier Meat processes meat, beef and lamb for manufacturers like Northern Foods and Greencore.
 
Charcuterie, meanwhile, makes products including continental sausages, roast beef and pastrami for the likes of pizza chain Dominos and pub owner J.D. Wetherspoon.
 
ANM also used IFE to launch the first retail line from the Charcuterie business. The Scotch Premier range includes black pudding, haggis and mini-breakfast packs aimed at UK multiples.