The businessman behind Britain’s biggest poultry empire is shaking up its leadership team by recruiting a former Starbucks executive as its new finance chief.

Sky News understands Nigel Williams, who most recently worked at Australia’s Collins Foods, will become the group chief financial officer of Boparan Holdings in the spring.

He will replace Craig Tomkinson, who has held the role for the last six years.

The handover will come ahead of a major refinancing at the company, which owns 2 Sisters Food Group, one of Britain’s biggest privately owned food companies.

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A supplier to many of the country’s biggest supermarket chains, 2 Sisters has earned its owner, Ranjit Boparan, the sobriquet “chicken king” because of its vast poultry operations.

Its subsidiaries include Bernard Matthews, the UK’s biggest supplier of turkeys to Britons’ Christmas dinner tables.

It has a refinancing deadline of June 2025, with initial work on the project expected to get under way in the near term, according to insiders.

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2SFG is chaired by Richard Pennycook, the former Wm Morrison finance chief and Co-op Group chief executive.

Employing about 13,000 people, the company is also a major supplier of ready-meals such as pizzas and soups.

A 2SFG spokesman declined to comment.

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