Irish foods group Greencore today made a friendly bid of Stg £258 million for British group, Hazlewood Foods. The bid values each Hazlewood share at 113 pence.
The bid would give the Irish group a 28.7% stake in the UK firm and furthers Greencore's strategy of expanding into value-added and growing areas of the UK and European convenience retail and food services markets. Hazlewood has leading market positions in the areas of sandwiches, chilled pizza, chilled sauces and celebration cakes and desserts.
Greencore said it intends to rationalise the UK portfolio to eliminate certain poorly performing businesses and to focus on growth areas. Certain products of the two companies overlap and Greencore expects the purchase to yield annual cost savings of over £7 million by the end of the second year of the deal.
Meanwhile, Hazlewood Foods today announced its results for the six months to the end of September. These show pre-tax profits of Stg £13.1 million compared to £21.6 million the same time last year. Sales grew marginally from £388.7 million to £389.8.
