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Tyrrells has continued it focus on international markets with its first European acquisition.
The snacks manufacturer has snapped up German organic crisp maker Aroma Snacks for an undisclosed sum.
It will give Tyrrells a manufacturing base in continental Europe and comes just eight months after its first international acquisition, when it bought Australian organic snacks company Yarra Valley Snack Foods.
Aroma is one of Germany’s largest organic crisp producers and owns the Lisa’s Hand-Cooked Chips brand.
The deal increases the number of Tyrrells manufacturing sites to five globally.
The acquisition propels Germany to Tyrrells’ largest European market, followed by France, where Tyrrells is the number one premium crisp brand.
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Morning update
Shoppers continued to stay away from the high street in April, with the deepest decline in footfall for more than two years recorded by the BRC.
It coincided with the first rise in town centre shop vacancies for 15 months, which increased to 9.6% last month, up from 8.7% in January.
Footfall in April was 2.4% down on a year ago – and slightly ahead of the 2.7% fall in March. The figure is worse on the high street, with a 4.7% fall well below the three-month average. A 1.1% increase in footfall in retail parks helped offset the declines elsewhere, but shopping centres also saw a decrease of -0.7% in the number of shoppers coming through the doors.
This further decline in high street footfall is consistent with the flat sales growth the BRC reported in its most recent retail sales monitor.
Helen Dickinson, chief executive of the British Retail Consortium, said: “Today’s figures will make sobering reading for retailers battling to attract customers into their shops. Taken together today’s figures tangibly demonstrate the impact of the structural change happening in our industry. It’s clear that retailers, local authorities and the government need to redouble their combined efforts to mitigate the impact of this change on our high streets and town centres.”
Diane Wehrle, marketing and insights director at Springboard, added: “April’s footfall figures certainly echo the high street decline seen over recent months, which can be attributable to the poor weather for this time of year, but with digital sales and retail parks also slowing down it signifies something more at play. The rise in unemployment and economic uncertainty in this pre EU referendum period has undoubtedly adversely impacted consumer activity. We know that cuts in retail spending are the first line of defence against threats to household budgets when consumer confidence is knocked.”
It’s been a bad start to the week on the markets, with the FTSE 100 opening 0.4% down to 6,111.21 points. Unilever (ULVR) has fallen 1.5% to 3,119p, Coca-Cola HBC (CCH) is down 1.3% to 1,331p and British American Tobacco (BAT) is down 1.2% to 4,175p. Premier Foods (PFD) is also down 1.1% to 38.8p ahead of tomorrow’s annual results.
Tesco (TSCO), Dairy Crest (DCG) and Ocado (OCDO) have all opened up by 0.8% to 162.9p, 0.6% to 575p and 0.5% to 272.3p respectively.
This week in the City
Tomorrow brings preliminary results for Premier Foods, with CEO Gavin Darby facing journalists and investors for the first time since turning down three separate bids by US rival McCormick. Darby will be expected to outline more of his plan for how the agreement with Japanese noodle maker Nissin will fuel growth at Premier and lift the share price toward the 65p offer price which McCormick tabled.
Sandwich maker Greencore will also report half-year figures tomorrow, which is expected to show more solid growth at the business.
Thursday sees Wal-Mart report its first quarter numbers, along with Asda, with boss Andy Clarke under pressure to put a halt to falling sales. Booker also puts out its full-year results on Thursday.
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