Pork Farms Ltd has acquired Kerry Foods’ chilled savoury pastry business for an undisclosed sum, the company announced today.
The Nottingham-based pork pie manufacturer, which also operates the UK’s largest quiche factory supplying own-label products to the supermarkets, will incorporate the savoury pastry facilities in Poole and Spalding into a new company.
The new Pork Farms Group will be headed by Pork Farms’ existing management team, led by Chris Peters as group managing director and Gareth Voyle as chairman.
Peters said the acquisition was an exciting next step for the business that would allow it to build on its existing record for innovation and quality.
“It will provide our customers with a streamlined, more responsive and better invested supply chain, reflecting the increasingly competitive retail landscape that we are seeing in today’s market as consumers’ shopping habits change,” he said.
The move would help the business build on its track record for innovation and quality, Peters added, allowing it to make further investment in production facilities, R&D and innovation. “This will expand the quality and range of products available to all our customers, and will provide new opportunities for our employees.”
Pork Farms Ltd was bought by Vision Capital in 2007 from Northern Foods, and since then has spent more than £30m upgrading its facilities, consolidating and restructuring sites. The business currently comprises a cold pork pie business; an own-label and branded quiche facility, supplying Happy Egg, Bowyers, Asda, Sainsbury’s and M&S; a sausage roll and hot pie factory; and a Scotch egg plant in Shaftesbury.
Sales grew 4.6% to £152m in the year to 30 March 2013, according to records filed at Companies House, up from £145m in 2012. Operating profit nearly trebled to £3m, which the company attributed to improved productivity and increased turnover.
Pork Farms was advised by Macfarlanes and financial advisor McQueen, who it appointed in autumn 2012 to look at strategic options for the business. Last year the company told The Grocer it was considering buying back factories in Shaftesbury, Market Drayton and Nottingham that had been deleveraged following Vision Capital’s acquisition of the business. It confirmed today this remained an option but its acquisition of the Kerry Food chilled savoury business had been its priority.
The new sites will be incorporated into the Pork Farms portfolio and boost staff numbers from around 1,400 to more than 2,550, it said. The company also confirmed that “while we can never rule out the need to reduce roles in the future, we do not currently have plans for redundancies”.
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