Foyle Food Group (FFG) Holdings Limited accounts for 2025 show turnover increased to £638.981m (€750m), up from £530.280m (€622.4m) in 2024. Operating profit increased to £23.6m (€27.7m), up from £20.9m (€24.5m) the previous year.

As figure 1 shows, turnover and operating profit have been trending upwards over several years. Employee numbers in 2025 were 1,381 just slightly higher than 1,374 in the previous year.

During the year ended 31 December 2025, the company paid an interim dividend of £3.4m (€4m) up from the £3.3m (€3.87m) paid the previous year and the directors didn’t recommend the payment of a final dividend. There was a £4m(€4.7m) dividend paid in 2026. A claim for a Research and Development tax credit of £105,816 was made with respect to eligible utilities and staff costs of £505,988

Outlook

In their report, the directors identified the key business risks and uncertainties that could impact on the group and company, as “the ongoing supply of cattle for processing, changing consumer behaviour, changing sales market, buy/sell margin and cost control”.

About FFG

The Foyle Food Group is owned by the Acheson family and headquartered in Omagh, Co Tyrone, where one of its two abattoirs and boning halls is located in Northern Ireland. The other is on the outskirts of Derry City.

There are three further abattoirs in the group, one in Carrigans Co Donegal and two others in England. The company also has a retail packing and further processing facility in Omagh, plus a rendering business adjacent to their Co Derry factory. They have processing capacity for 7,000 cattle per week and all of its sites are USDA approved. The FFG is one of the leading UK companies in developing beef and offal exports to the US, utilising the reciprocal 13,000 tonne tariff-free quota agreed between the US and UK in May 2025.

FFG is primarily focused on supplying customers in UK and EU markets. However, it has also been active in pursuing export opportunities international markets. It was one of the first Irish companies to export beef to the US when that market opened in 2015 and was also among the early businesses into China when access was secured in 2018. Neither market has developed to any great extent since then for several reasons. With the May 2025 trade deal, the UK has an advantage over Ireland with the tariff-free quota for the US and it is believed that FFG is making good use of it, particularly for offal exports.

Securing and retaining USDA approval requires considerable effort and investment which several beef processors choose not to make as they judge the market opportunities not to be sufficient to justify it.

Review of the business

In its strategic report for the business, the directors said that “the buy-sell margin was adversely affected by increases in cattle prices, which were particularly prevalent in the first half of the year, and it took some time for these increases to be recovered through pricing”.

The higher price of cattle placed extra demands on cash and the directors noted that “the level of borrowings increased modestly in line with trading requirements, alongside a higher working capital investment, reflecting prevailing market conditions”.

Sustainability

FFG has had a sustainability goals and strategy in place since 2021. In the report it says: “In line with Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) requirements, the Group has now published its third Sustainability Report, which highlights the substantial progress achieved to date.

“Notably, the Group has exceeded its initial decarbonisation target, achieving a 26% reduction in emissions against an original goal of 14% and has continued on this trajectory with operational emissions now at a 29.6% reduction against our 2019 baseline. Looking ahead, the Group is focused on setting new industry benchmarks through innovative sustainability initiatives.”

While all meat processors have made significant strides to reduce emissions on their sites and distribution channels, the reality is that most emissions are generated earlier in the supply chain from breeding, growing and finishing cattle. These are what are referred to as scope 3 emissions, not directly in control of processors.

Analysis

While it has just one factory in the Republic of Ireland, FFG is frequently noted for paying strong cattle prices. These come with terms and conditions and they are noted for having demanding specifications particularly with weights, in order to achieve the top prices.

Its geographical location on the border in northeast Donegal restricts its catchment area which also adds to their procurement challenge.

With five abattoirs across the island of Ireland and England, it may not be in the top tier alongside ABP, Dawn and Kepak but it is a substantial player in the next level. It has access to top supermarket and burger chain customers and well developed international markets even though these remain a relatively small part of its business just as it is for the processing industry in general.

Comment – window on factory profitability last year

Beef producers will retain fond memories from the early part of 2025 as farm gate prices climbed to unprecedented levels. There was much discussion and debate at the time on just how sustainable these were and the question was asked if factories could afford the soaring prices they were paying for cattle.

Of course there is little insight into factory performance and the FFG are one of just a few companies that publish annual results. These give a limited window into the how the industry has performed during the period reported on. Based on the FFG accounts it is clear that they were able to secure the necessary additional revenue from beef sales to maintain their margins even with the higher cattle price. It is noted that this was probably achieved more in the second half of the year given the comments on the challenges presented by the rising prices in the first half.

FFG delivered an operating profit margin of 3.7% which is only fractionally lower than they reported for 2024. This is in keeping with the theme of the beef processing industry; it usually delivers high profits in absolute terms but this depends on throughput as margins are relatively low.

With Foyle recording a successful year in 2025, it is reasonable to conclude that the other major companies whose business is spread across the Ireland and Britain will have also delivered a satisfactory performance.

This contrasts with the US where meat processors have been recording losses going into billions of dollars on their beef operations as they struggled to recover their record high cost of cattle from their retail and business customers.