Pork supplier Tulip has its sights set on the premium meat sector after announcing the acquisition of a portfolio of companies from Parkam Food Group.

Tulip – the UK arm of Danish meat giant Danish Crown – has exchanged contracts to purchase the shares of Parkam Foods, Freshway Chilled Foods, Trophy Foods, as well as the business of Tranfoods for an undisclosed sum.

Together the companies are expected to post a combined turnover of between £100m and £115m for the current financial year.

The companies are strong players in premium retail and foodservice, supplying beef, turkey, chicken and sandwiches. Tulip was already a strong supplier of high-quality products but not necessarily sufficiently strong in the premium segment in which the acquired companies operated, admitted Tulip CEO Steve Murrells. “This gap will now be filled.”

The move would add new products to its portfolio and help increase its sales to the biggest UK retail chains, the company added. Tulip already supplies fresh pork, cooked meats, bacon and sausages to UK retailers and foodservice companies.

The acquisition will see it add sandwich and sandwich filler production to its existing commercial offer and would take Tulip “from just being a meat business to being a food business,” a company spokesman said.

The move into sandwiches will also align Tulip’s portfolio more closely with that of rival 2 Sisters Food Group, which – through its acquisition of Northern Foods earlier this year – supplies sandwiches, as well as Cranswick plc.

The acquisition was a “clear signal of our intent to further develop the Tulip business through acquisitive and organic growth”, added Murrells.

Tulip said the deal would not be subject to approval by the Competition Commission because Tulip currently had less than a 5% share of the chicken and beef market so the added business would not cause it to cross the threshold at which the Commission would investigate. 

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