There is nothing paltry about the returns recorded by the companies that own the poultry processing plant on Newent Business Park.

The site is run by Freemans of Newent Ltd, a company which is wholly owned by Avara Foods.

Started in 2018, Avara Foods is a joint venture between Faccenda and Cargills - the company who bought Freemans in 2008.

Both Freemans of Newent and ultimate parent company Avara have lodged their full-year accounts at Companies House in the last week.

Revenues for the 12 months to June 1 at Freemans were £517million, £500million of which came from sales in the UK.

Sales to Europe accounted for just in excess of £15million with receipts to the Rest of the World coming in at £1.05 million.

The Freemans revenues accounted for around half of the totals recorded by Avara Foods, who lodged receipts of £1.142billion for the year ended May 31, 2019.

As well as the £1.142billion in revenues, Avara Foods reported a £13.7million pre-tax profit, all of which is attributable to the owners of the parent company.

The revenue was largely gained from sales to the UK market of £1.100 billion, with £38million to Europe and £3.8million to the Rest of the World.

Avara Foods employ more than 6,500 staff across their 10 sites in the UK.