MANAGEMENT and staff at an East Yorkshire poultry company are celebrating after recording a 20 per cent increase in sales year on year.

Family owned T. Soanes & Son has secured £2.5 million worth of new and additional business following the Red Tractor and BRC accreditations that were secured by the Middleton on the Wolds business last year.

General manager Nigel Upson, who was appointed general manager by the Soanes family in 2012, is very proud of the team's achievements.

He said: "Everybody worked very hard to pass these two very tough quality standards and it has made a real difference to the business, both in terms of performance and customer perception."

The 18-month process to secure BRC (British Retail Consortium) Food Safety standard at the A grade level was led by technical manager Andy Dolman, who was appointed in 2013.

The Red Tractor farm assurance standard was delivered by Melanie Jackson, a stalwart of the business who has worked at the Middleton site for 28 years.

T. Soanes & Son is a family-owned business which has been rearing and preparing poultry for more than 65 years.

It rears more than five million birds per year on its Yorkshire Wolds farms and sells its chicken to butchers and independent retailers in Yorkshire and to wholesalers nationwide.

It also supplies a range of game in season to wholesale and retail customers.

Red Tractor is the largest food assurance scheme in the UK, while BRC Global Standards is a safety and quality certification programme, used by more than 22,000 certificated suppliers in 123 countries.