Ready made meals supplier Greencore Group PLC (LON:GNC) has snapped up UK salad maker Freshtime for £56mln.
Greencore, which supplies pre-made sandwiches, soups, quiches and other foods to all the major UK supermarkets, said the deal would expand its presence in food-to-go salads and chilled snacks while bringing in a strong customer base.
Greencore already distributes a large chunk of Freshtime’s products through its direct to store network.
The group will fund the deal using existing debt facilities.
The acquisition is expected to be neutral to earnings in the 2019 fiscal year and “modestly accretive” in 2020.
Greencore chief executive, Patrick Coveney, said: “Freshtime is an excellent strategic fit for Greencore. It is a business and a customer set that we know very well and it provides us with an exciting opportunity to enhance our product offering, add further capacity to our manufacturing network, and help drive growth and value for shareholders.”
Last year Freshtime generated revenues of £66.0mln and profit before tax of £5.6mln.