Robert Watson traces the rapid growth of Hilton Food Group, the meat-packing business he runs, to 1996, when Tesco was centralising its meat supply system to cut costs and prevailed on three suppliers to create a joint venture based on a single facility at Huntingdon. One of those businesses was Foyle Food Group, a family business set up in Londonderry in 1977 by Mr Watson and his father Archie.
“We were slaughterers and packers and supplied major retailers across Europe,” says Mr Watson, 50, “In my role as chief executive of Foyle I had a lot of contact with retailers in continental Europe, which was useful when Hilton started expanding there.”
