ABP has taken a 25% stake in English beef processor, Dovecote Park.
Dovecote Park has two sites, one in Yorkshire and a second facility in Lincolnshire, which together employed on average, a total of 1,022 people in the financial year ending 26 September 2025.
Turnover for the year was £347m (€406m), up from £281.6m (€329.7m) the previous year with an operating profit of £3.6m (€4.2m), down on the £4.4m (€5.1m) reported for the year before.
The company is primarily engaged in beef processing but also handles veal and venison.
The business comprises of two large abattoirs and deboning facilities, plus a large retail packing unit.
A venison processing unit was added in 2017. It has been closely associated with premium UK supermarket group Waitrose to which it supplies exclusively British beef.
It added a Burger King production facility in 2019 and is also supplier to Gourmet Burger Kitchen.
Dovecote Park was established in 1997 and has David Bosworth Gunner and Edwin John Richard Canvin listed as persons with significant control and Amanda Patricia Buitelaar was listed as having a 25-50% shareholding up to 28 April 2026.
ABP’s Tom Joseph Kirwan was appointed as a director on 16 June 2026.
When contacted by the Irish Farmers Journal, a spokesperson for Dovecote Park said: “The board of directors of the Extra Detail group of companies, owners of Dovecote Park Ltd, the Yorkshire-based beef processor, confirm a change in the ultimate ownership of Benoni Holding Corporation, [which holds] a minority shareholding in the group.
“The acquisition of Benoni represents a long-term strategic investment for the ABP Group. It has taken a seat on the board of directors of Extra Detail Ltd and its subsidiary companies. Benoni, as a minority shareholder, will be supportive of the group’s strategic direction, whilst maintaining the policy of acknowledging the current board and management team’s independent ability and authority to grow and develop the Dovecote Park business.”
ABP declined an opportunity to comment.
German acquisition
Earlier this year, ABP entered the German beef-processing industry with the acquisition of Vion’s abattoir and boning factory in Buchloe, Bavaria.
Vion stated that the factory handled around 2,700 cattle per week with 750 tonnes of beef processed.
While this is ABP’s first processor acquisition in Germany, the company has been active in Poland where it now has three beef-processing factories having established its first there in 2011.
The ABP appetite for acquisition and expansion shows no sign of slowing down. Its last acquisition in the UK was the Scotbeef abattoir in Bridge of Allan and its processing factory in Glasgow, Scotland in 2023.
Irish farmers will recall that ABP’s acquisition of Slaney and Linden foods was preceded by a 50:50 joint venture with Fane Valley Co Op.
While it only has a 25% stake in Dovecote Park at this stage it will be interesting to observe if ABP will be satisfied with being a minority shareholder in the business over the long term or will it be a launchpad for an attempt to take full control.
Dovecote Park and ABP have been major competitors in the English beef processing industry for several years and ABP’s York factory is just half an hour away from Dovecote Park’s headquarters in Pontefract.
When a minority shareholder decided to sell their shares, it might have been expected that the remaining shareholders would have been the purchasers rather than have a competitor coming on board. Owning 25% of the business doesn’t enable ABP dictate policy at Dovecote Park but it will create an interesting dynamic.