Russell Hume moves into administration following meat hygiene scandal

Meat industry news : The recent meat hygiene scandal in the UK seems to have taken its toll on Derby-based meat supplying business Russell Hume as it moved into administration, leaving the fate of 300 employees in the dark.

Russell Hume is one of the two meat suppliers that had recently come under the scanner of the UK food regulators – Food Standards Agency (FSA) and Food Standards Scotland (FSS). Along with the 2 Sisters Food Group, Russell Hume has been singled out by the UK food regulators for not complying with the expected standards at their meat cutting plants.

Russell Hume operates half a dozen meat processing plants in London, Liverpool, Birmingham, Fife, Exeter and Boroughbridge. The company has been a supplier of meat to several restaurants, pubs and hotels in the UK.

Representative image of lamb chops. Image courtesy of Suat Eman at FreeDigitalPhotos.net.

Unable to sustain its business following the UK meat hygiene scandal, Russell Hume has gone in for Chris Pole and Mark Orton from KPMG Restructuring to take over as joint administrators. Russell Hume reckons that it is difficult to continue running its business owing to “impossible trading conditions”.

The meat supplying business will be put up for sale by the administrators from KPMG Restructuring.

Russell Hume has had a tough year so far as in January as it was ordered by the FSA to halt production across all its meat cutting plant following an inspection of its premises by the UK food regulators.

Its meat products were also forced to be recalled by the UK food regulators which alleged that Russell Hume did not maintain the required food hygienic standards.

The recall of the Russell Hume meat products impacted restaurants like Wetherspoon, Tiger Tiger, Jamie Oliver, and Butlins and also Marston’s and Greene King along with others, which depended on its supply.

Commenting on Russell Hume moving into administration, Chris Pole – a partner at KPMG and the joint administrator of the meat supplying business, said: “The recent product recall and halt in operations has caused significant customer attrition and trading difficulties, which in turn has led the directors to take the decision to place the company into administration.

“Regrettably, with little prospect of production restarting on site, a total of 266 people have been made redundant.”