A LANCASHIRE food company is issuing a call for workers to help maintain food supplies amid the ongoing coronavirus crisis.

2 Sisters Food Group, which processes one-third of all chicken consumed in the UK, is the country's largest producer of ready meals and owns and manufactures Fox’s Biscuits in Kirkham, made the appeal via social media, which forms part of a nationwide campaign to fill vacancies across the business.

It also comes as the company tries to deal with unprecedented damage caused by the virus.

CEO Ronald Kers said: “2 Sisters’ job is literally to feed the nation - getting food to people has never been so important.

As we come together as a country to fight the coronavirus, we need everybody’s help to keep our factories running.”

2 Sisters, based in Whitworth Street, Wesham has a variety of roles it needs to fill and is particularly keen to speak to people who have worked in the hospitality sector, but are now out of work thanks to the industry’s collapse in the wake of the virus outbreak.

The company already employs over 20,000 people across the UK and Europe and along with owning Fox Biscuits is also the largest producer of ready meals in the country.

The company claims that up to 75% of the UK’s population eats its products each day but says that the crisis has prompted the need for yet more workers due to higher levels of public demand and staff who are forced to go into self-isolation.

Last week food workers were designated as key workers, meaning that they were expected to come in to work as normal, despite an initial period of mixed messaging in which government texts were sent to workers telling them to ‘stay home’.

Mr Kers said: “We urgently need people so we can keep delivering a full range of products to supermarkets across the country.

We are recruiting now for a wide range of factory and logistics jobs up and down the country.

“Please join us and help feed the nation.”

He added: “We are hopeful that given the devastating effect this current crisis has had on certain sectors, we can reach out to these people and persuade them that a career in the food industry can be both fulfilling and enjoyable.”

A spokesman for Fox’s Biscuits in Kirkham added: “We have various roles ranging from packing, dispatch, preparation and there are various shift patterns to fit around people’s lifestyles. We can interview applicants immediately and hopefully we can accommodate as many people as possible. We will do all we can to help.”

For more information visit: http://www.2sfg.com/careers/feed-the-nation/.