The company behind Co Fermanagh food processor Ready Egg Products saw its pre-tax profit almost double to £16.4 million last year, new accounts show.
The latest financial filing with Companies House show Charles Crawford’s Lisnaskea-based Lough Erne Investments enjoyed a 33% uplift in revenue to £233m last year, a £58m annual increase for the year ending December 25 2023.
In May 2024, agri-food co-operative Fane Valley acquired a significant stake in the Ready Egg Products business.
Fane Valley acquired the interests of former shareholders Greenfield Foods Ltd and Shane and Declan Kerrigan, formerly Irish Egg Products, with Lough Erne Investments retaining the majority share.
Ready Egg Products was originally established in 2007 as a joint venture between Irish Egg Products, Greenfield Foods and Charles Crawford’s Erne Eggs.
The Fane Valley deal marks the latest evolution of the business, which now packs and processes in the region of 25 million eggs per week, for customers including McDonalds and M&S.
It came two years after Ready Egg Products acquired 100% of Co Tyrone rival Skea Eggs.
The Donaghmore-based operation supplies around 9.5 million eggs per week to major supermarket chains including M&S and Sainsbury’s.
Fane Valley’s group chief executive Trevor Lockhart, who became a director of Ready Egg Products in May this year, said the new joint venture represented a strategic opportunity for the co-op, which has a long-standing relationship with the Lisnaskea firm.
Charles Crawford said the deal would help the company “pursue further growth, to realise efficiencies and to drive improvements in the sustainability of our products and processes”.
Meanwhile, the Companies House filing showed Lough Erne’s overall staff costs increased by 23% to £10m in 2023.
That was despite a slight reduction in its workforce to 299 people.
Lough Erne also paid around £1.5m more in tax last year, with the final bill just over £3.8m for 2023.
