It comes as the company continues to struggle to increase its sales to levels experienced before it was hit by negative publicity from Jamie Oliver’s attack on its turkey Twizzler product, followed by a turkey cruelty court case and the outbreak of bird flu on its farm at Holton, Suffolk.

The company’s reputation was further damaged after it came to light it imported poultry meat from Hungary. Although the company claims that only a small percentage of its branded products were Hungarian, it has made the decision to move production of those lines back to the UK.

"The importance of being British was something we had underestimated," said UK chief executive Bart Dalla Mura. "Being British doesn’t give you the licence to charge more, but it does cost more to produce."