Bernard Matthews saved by 'Chicken King'

Bernard Matthews, Europe's largest turkey company, has been saved from collapse by an investor known informally as the "Chicken King".

British businessman Ranjit Boparan owns a range of food-related assets, including the UK's biggest chicken processing company, the 2 Sisters Food Group. He is also the man behind Fox's biscuits, Harry Ramsden's restaurants and Goodfella's pizza.

According to the Daily Telegraph, Boparan has agreed to buy Bernard Matthews through a "pre-pack administration", in which the viable assets of the business are bundled together and sold without the need for a process in the courts.

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Crucially, Boparan has confirmed that all the 2,000 jobs at the firm will be saved.

However, the takeover deal will not include the company's pension fund, which will be passed to the Pension Protection Fund (PPF), the industry-backed safety net for the schemes of insolvent companies. Members who have not yet hit retirement age could face a cut to payouts of up to ten per cent. The scheme is thought to have 725 members.

Bernard Matthews has a 66-year heritage but has struggled in recent times, with seven consecutive years of losses. Last year, the firm's revenues fell from £306.8m to £276.8m.

A spokesman for Boparan said: "We have a proven track record in turning around businesses and we aim to make Bernard Matthews great again."

The nature of the deal - and specifically the situation with the pension scheme, which is thought to be £16m in deficit - is likely to prove controversial.

Labour MP Frank Field, who chairs the parliamentary pensions committee - and who has been highly critical of Sir Philip Green in relation to the pension scheme issues at BHS - told Sky News regulators should intervene.

"The new employer must not be allowed to get away with dumping the Bernard Matthews pension scheme into which workers have paid," he said.

"The Pensions Regulator needs to act robustly and quickly to stop such activities being mimicked by other asset buyers who wish to dump pension liabilities."

Field told the Telegraph he will be chairing a fresh inquiry into occupational pensions next month and that the sale of Bernard Matthews "puts the matter in the spotlight again".

He added: "There is a clear contrast between intergenerational interest of former employees and current employees".