Halal food park opens in Birmingham

The halal food park, at 126 Leopold Street in Birmingham, is now operational after opening two weeks ago, and will soon carry the name First Halal Business Park. There are currently three meat processing companies on-site – JKY Food Solutions, Asia Halal Meat and Asia Halal Poultry – with more due to move in in coming months.

JKY Food Solutions, set up in 2010, supplies over 150 restaurants and 70-80 retail shops. Director Muhammed Junaid said: “We were previously on too small a premises, so we moved to this big place and now we have room for a lot of other halal businesses too.

“We are selling to the Muslim community as we grow as a business, and we supply to other ethnic communities too. We are also hoping to create a lot more jobs in the area.”

Junaid told meatinfo.co.uk that a number of halal companies were already considering moving to the food park, with one, Prime Halal Meat and Poultry, planning to move into to park within the next six weeks. Halal business TA Wholesale will join them after a unit on the park is renovated and ready.

Naved Syed, Janan Meat managing director and halal adviser to the Yorkshire Association of Asian Businesses, said: “This is the first time the Muslim community has a purpose-built site like this – it’s a giant step forward for Muslims. Everything on the site is hi-spec and the companies can show people they are doing halal food properly.

“It makes it far more convenient as it’s a place where everything is halal all together. People know exactly what they’re getting here.

Syed added that he had every confidence that the venture would succeed since it is being funded privately. “It’s not from government money, it’s been set up by a private consortium so they’ll make sure it’s successful. Also, the tax-payer is not taking the burden of the cost of the project.”

Source : Halal Focus / 28 Apr 2014