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After a flurry of dealmaking in the UK bagged snacks sector, The Grocer understands Manomasa and Mexican Dave’s owner It’s All Good is also exploring sale options.
After Intersnack acquired Popchips’ European brand via its UK subsidiary KP Snacks for an undisclosed sum this week – to follow its deals for Tyrrells from Hershey and Butterkist from Tangerine Confectionery – it has emerged It’s All Good has been working with corporate advisors Houlihan Lokey to explore options including a possible sale.
The Durham-based group, which was subject to a £3.5m minority investment by NVM Private Equity in early 2014, is exploring a number of strategic options, including a possible sale, refinancing, raising external capital or pursuing acquisitions
IAG’s brands, which target the premium end of the market, are listed in Waitrose, Ocado, Sainsbury’s and Asda and the group has built a significant own label tortilla chip range, including at M&S.
One dealmaker noted its status as one of the few competitors to PepsiCo’s Doritos gave it a compelling market position. “The range is really on-trend, focused on more exotic, fashionable and healthier products and there are not many other branded tortilla snacking brands out there.”
The group will soon post annual accounts for 2017, but in the 2016 calendar year it grew sales by 48% to £18m and make a pre-tax profit of £1.1m.
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Morning update
Check out this week’s edition of The Grocer for analysis of Unilever’s first half results, two drinks companies to have called in liquidators and slowing sales at Caribbean food specialist Grace Foods UK.
See thegrocer.co.uk/finance this morning for full details.
On the markets this morning, the FTSE 100 is up 0.2% to 7,699.1pts.
Early risers include tobacco giants British American Tobacco (BATS), up 2.6% to 3,963.5p and Imperial Brands (IMB), up 1.7% to 2,953.5p.
Other risers include McBride (MCB), up 1.9% to 139.4p, Applegreen (APGN), up 1.8% to 523p and Ocado (OCDO), up 1.5% to 1,073p.
Fallers include Carr’s Group (CARR), down 2.8% to 156.7p, Majestic Wine (WINE), down 1.1% to 451p and Just Eat (JE), down 0.7% to 872.2p.
Yesterday in the City
The FTSE 100 ended the day up 0.1% yesterday to 7,684pts.
Unilever (ULVR) was one of the FTSE’s biggest risers yesterday, climbing 3% to 4,330.5p despite a slowdown in second quarter sales which still exceeded analyst expectations because of the well-flagged impact of the trucker strikes in Brazil.
Hilton Food Group (HFG) rose 0.6% yesterday after updating the market that its first half sales were in line with expectations.
Other risers included McBride (MCB), up 2.9% to 136.9p, Greene King (GNK), up 2.2% to 538.2p, Imperial Brands (IMB), up 1.9% to 2,905.5p, Coca-Cola HCB (CCH), up 1.9% to 2,801p and Greencore (GNC), up 1.5% to 177.5p.
Hotel Chocolat Group (HOTC) lost 2.4% back to 341.5p after a strong rise on Tuesday after announcing its full-year results.
Vimto maker Nichols ended yesterday down 0.2% to 1,485p, recovering from a deeper early share price drop after announcing strong first half UK sales had been dragged back by weaker international performance.
Other fallers included Carr’s Group (CARR), down 1.7% to 161.3p, McColl’s (MCLS), down 1.5% to 203p, Greggs (GRG), down 1.3% to 964.5p, PureCircle (PURE), down 1.3% to 395p and AG Barr (BAG), down 1.1% to 702p.
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