Pictures: Hereford's Sun Valley Poultry in the 1980s

We have taken a look back at our archives to put together a gallery of pictures from throughout the 1980s at Sun Valley.

Sun Valley, 1984: Farm Minister John McGregor opens the Corbett Block with founder Col Corbett and chairman, Lieut-Col Eddie Phillips

Founded in 1960 by Colonel Uvedale Corbett and another Herefordshire farmer, the firm began operations with a staff of around 100 and an initial production target of 50,000 chickens.

By 1974, 1,500 people were on the payroll when the firm was forced to shut down closure rumours, stating that it was "completely untrue" that it had lost its Marks and Spencer contract, at the time accounting for 40 per cent of its production.

It also denied that there was any truth to a rumour that it was planning to diversify into rabbit production that year.

"We are not interested in them and not equipped to deal with them," said Col Corbett at the time.

Sun Valley, 1980: Miss Sun Valley, Lesley Preece

It had cemented itself as Herefordshire's major employer by 1980, and was sold to Cargill-Albion Limited, the UK subsidiary of Cargill, a company based in Minneapolis, USA, for £17.3 million in May that year.

Sun Valley, 1984: Employees Mick Farley, Rob Stanton, and Nigel Powney hand over a cheque to Dr John Ross at Hereford hospital

Its fresh and processed products, produced at one of Europe's most modern factories, were being sold in leading supermarkets including Marks and Spencer, Waitrose, Sainsbury's and Tesco.

At that time it was producing 30 million chickens and two million turkeys annually, with 2,300 staff members on the payroll and an annual turnover in the region of £85 million in 1984.

And expansion was on the cards, with the firm taking over the former Saunders Valve factory at Widemarsh Common that year, making a £3 million investment that would create "the most advanced food processing centre of its type" in the country.

Sun Valley, 1984: Managing director Hugh Guill and divisional general manager Eddie Clarke in the brand-new Corbett Block

The new plant was named the Corbett Block, after the firm's founder, and would become home to the turkey butchery and coated products departments as well as allowing for the creation of further product lines, with a new testing and development kitchen, while allowing for the expansion of the chicken butchery operation at the firm's Grandstand Road factory.

Sun Valley, 1985: Staff raised money for a leukaemia charity with a sponsored walk, pictured with Dr Geoff Cramer (left) of the Spender Bourne Foundation

More big news was on the cards for the firm in October of that same year, when it cinched a deal to become the sole supplier of McDonald's McNuggets in Britain when they were launched in the country that year.

Sun Valley, 1986: Apprentices Tom Inglis, David Barnard, and Stephen Griffiths with safety and training manager Ron Aston and chief engineer Colin Clark

Further expansion work also took place in 1986, when a new £1.25 million extension to the firm's Yazor Road plant's cooked processing area opened, creating some 100 new jobs to add to its then 2,500-strong workforce.

Sun Valley, 1987: Employee Joyce Jakeman takes the pulse of Red Cross training officer Carol Jones in front of staff after receiving her first aid training

Sun Valley later became Cargill Meats Europe and is now Avara Foods.