Ranjit Singh Boparan (Punjabi: ਰਨਜੀਤ ਸਿੰਘ ਬੋਪਰਨ, born 24 August 1966) is a British businessman, and the founder and owner of 2 Sisters Food Group with his wife Baljinder Kaur Boparan. Known as the "Chicken King" in the West Midlands, he has an estimated personal fortune of £600 million. Early career Born in August 1966 in Bilston, West Midlands, Boparan left school aged 16 with few qualifications. He started working in a butchers shop, and founded 2 Sisters Food Group in 1993 with a small bank loan. Still resident today in the West Midlands, he began expanding West Bromwich-based 2 Sisters Food Group through its holding company Boparan Holdings, which he jointly owns with his wife. Boparan Holdings Boparan Holdings is the group company, which owns all of the couple's subsidiary holdings. The Boparans are keen on training and developing their workforce, and are proud of their record of putting employees through NVQs on factory and farm production. They are also proud of the high standards of animal welfare and food safety among their partner companies and suppliers, although an undercover investigation by ITV News and The Guardian in September 2017 found workers illegally changing the slaughter dates — and hence the use-by dates — at a 2 Sisters plant in West Bromwich. 2 Sisters Food Group 2 Sisters Food Group is a Birmingham, England-based food-manufacturing company. Established in 1993 by Ranjit Singh Boparan as a frozen retail cutting operation, it has grown rapidly through acquisition and expanded to cover 36 manufacturing sites in the UK, eight in the Netherlands, five in Ireland and one in Poland. The group employs 23,000 people, and annual sales of £3.28 billion. It is listed 9th on the 2017 Sunday Times Top Track 100. It is the largest food company in the UK by turnover. Northern Foods Following a period of asset disposal, on 17 November 2010 Northern Foods announced it was merging with Irish ready-made meals supplier, Greencore. According to industry web site, just-food.com, the company's shares rose more than 20% that day. The new company was to be called Essenta, with headquarters in Ireland but listed on the London Stock Exchange. However, after building up a 25% share holdings, on 21 January 2011 Boparan announced a £341M bid to buy Northern Foods, which succeeded in gaining sufficient shareholder support to proceed. This resulted in the appointment of Boparan as the company's chairman