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Fast growing kids snacking brand Bear has been snapped up by Lotus Bakeries for more than £70m. The Grocer exclusively revealed last night that a deal had agreed by Bear parent group Urban Fresh Foods and the Belgian Biscoff biscuit manufacturer.
It follows the £60m Lotus takeover of Nakd and Trek bar business Natural Balance Foods in August. The transaction means that the UK will become the biggest country in terms of branded turnover for the plc, ahead of Belgium, the Netherlands and France.
“With this acquisition, we will lead the way and become the true ‘category captain’ of the healthy snacking category in the UK and abroad,” CEO Jan Booner said.
Hayley and Andrew Gait-Golding, who founded Bear and Urban Fruit parent Urban Fresh Foods in 2007, and former Innocent Drinks commercial director Giles Brook, who invested in 2009, will continue to run the business from its London HQ. The three partners, plus the Hayley Gait-Golding’s parents, who also invested in the business, will receive a huge pay day from the deal.
For all the details click here for the full story on thegrocer.co.uk.
Morning update
Waitrose has failed to live up to its Christmas trading figures from a year ago. Sales for the week ending 12 December 2015 fell -1.4% to £146.7m (excluding fuel) compared with a year ago. The grocer doesn’t offer a reason for the fall in its weekly update. Retail analyst Nick Bubb reckons the figures puts Waitrose -4% down like for like. He added that over the past 19 weeks, Waitrose sales are cumulatively now running 1.6% up in gross terms (more than 0.5% down like for like). Personnel director Helen Hyde said with Christmas now firmly in sight customers had been getting prepared for festivities, focusing on alcohol. The fastest-growing drinks range was the selection of English wines – currently seeing growth of 80%. English sparkling wine was the star performer in the range, up 188% compared with this time last year. Hyde added that many of the strongest selling products were store cupboard items, as people made early preparations for the weeks of entertaining ahead.
Yesterday in the City
The market already seems to have crowned Sainsbury’s (SBRY) as this year’s winner of Christmas as the City sent the supermarket’s shares 3.1% higher to 255.8p yesterday. Sainsbury’s had been as high as 261.1p during the day’s trading – up by more than 5% - before settling back down in the afternoon. It is now almost 8% higher since Tuesday’s Kantar numbers.
Conversely, Tesco’s (TSCO) recent wretched run continued, with the shares dropping another 2.1% to 144.9p as investors fear for the market leader’s prospects over the crucial festive period. Morrisons (MRW) edged up 0.7% to 148.3p.
It was a good day generally for UK stocks which were boosted by the US Federal Reserve’s decision to hike interest rates for the first time since 2006. The FTSE 100 ended the day 0.7% up at 6,102.5p as early gains fell away slightly in the afternoon.
B&M European Value Retail (BME) was up 4.6% back to 299p, while Greencore (GNC) rose 3% to 346.4p.
The day was less kind to Real Good Food (RGD), which fell 4.6% to 51p, AG Barr (BAG) which fell 2.4% to 513p, and Poundland, down 2.3% to 210p.
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