John Scott Meat Acquires Trade and Assets of A.P Jess

John Scott Meat has purchased the shareholding of A P Jess Ltd in Sandyford Abattoir (Paisley) Ltd and the assets and goodwill of A P Jess Paisley. 

As of 26 June, Sandyford Abattoir and Sandyford Hides & Skins at Sandyford Road, Paisley are now fully owned and controlled by Hazel and Jamie Scott.

The combination of the site in Scotland, as well as the distribution depot in Basildon, Essex, makes John Scott Meat one of the largest family owned meat processors in Scotland, with a slaughtering capacity of 500 cattle and 2000 sheep per week and over 100 employees.

The focus of John Scott Meat has always been to fulfil the demands and individual specifications of its customers which include many of Scotland high street butchers, including QMS Scotch Butcher Club members. The acquisition will now allow John Scott Meat to work with high-end food service.

Hazel Scott, Managing Director of John Scott Meat, said: “When David and Allan Jess approached us with their offer to retire from their positions at Sandyford Abattoir to allow them to continue with their other business interests, it came at exactly the right time for us to progress our plans for expansion to keep up with an ever-growing demand.

“The acquisition of the adjacent premises with its boning facility will allow us to increase our production to supply more of our premium boxed meat to existing customers, as well as expanding our customer base.

“We are very much looking forward to forging new and strong relationships with existing A P Jess customers,” she added.

Jamie Scott, Director at John Scott Meat said: “We supply top quality, assured Scotch Beef PGI and Scotch Lamb PGI sourced directly from our own farms and from our well-established farmer groups.

“We also have complete control over the process from producer, abattoir and processing, right through to delivery of both hanging beef/lamb and boxed beef which gives our customers peace of mind that they are purchasing a premium product with full traceability.

“This has always been fundamental to our business and will continue as the business develops and grows,” he added.

The Scott family pride themselves on having eight generations still producing prime beef cattle and sheep on the same land at Thirdpart and Barr Farms.

Alan Clarke, Chief Executive at Quality Meat Scotland (QMS), said: “The acquisition of AP Jess by John Scott Meat is great news for the Scottish red meat industry, keeping valuable processing capacity in Scotland and ensuring continued supply of our world class brands, Scotch Beef PGI and Scotch Lamb PGI, from Sandyford Abattoir.”