Raisio Group has sold its UK snack bar business Halo Foods to Dutch investor Nimbus, taking a €19m (£15.9m) hit on the disposal.
CEO Matti Rihko said that Raisio will withdraw from manufacturing of snack bars marketed to consumers under its partners’ brands and focus on the development and marketing of proprietary branded products.
“For Raisio, it is important to expand the range of its branded products in line with consumer needs, not to produce itself all the products in the range,” he added.
The Finnish listed group signed an agreement to sell the own label snacks producer to Nimbus yesterday (12 July), with the Halo Foods business and all the 300 staff in the UK transferring to the new owner.
Raisio said it would record a loss of approximately €19m on the sale, with a further €1m hit to restructure its UK snack and cereal business in the second quarter,
Halo Foods, which has factories in Newport and Swindon and also owns the Dormen brand, became part of Raisio through its acquisition of Glisten in 2010. The business generated turnover of €18m in the first half of 2016. Raisio had centralised the production of its snack bars to Newport and the packaging of nibbles and nuts to the Swindon factory.
Raisio said Nimbus was a “hands-on investor with significant experience in acquisitions in the food sector in Europe”.
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