Bunzl PLC (LON:BNZL) has announced the acquisition of Snelling, a Canadian retailer of cleaning and hygiene products and industrial and foodservice packaging, for an undisclosed sum.
Snelling, which mostly supplies customers operating in the grocery, industrial and hospitality sectors throughout Eastern and Central Canada, had revenue of £28mln in 2019.
READ: Bunzl downgraded to ‘neutral’, Sanne upgraded to ‘overweight’ as JP Morgan looks at healthy business services sector
In a trading update, the FTSE 100 firm also said it has completed the acquisition of Brazilian personal protection equipment distributor Sao Paulo-based SP Equipamentos.
Bunzl chief executive Frank van Zanten said in the statement that 2020 has been “one of the most acquisitive in our history, with more than £410mln of committed spend” and added the pipeline “remains active with a number of discussions ongoing”.
The company said it expects full-year revenue to increase by 9%, due to similar levels of growth from both the increase in organic revenue and the impact of acquisitions.
Organic revenue growth reflects diverging trends between the strength of coronavirus-related product sales, including a higher proportion of imported own brand products such as gloves, masks, sanitisers and disinfectants, and declines in the sales of other products, the company said.
The growth in coronavirus-related sales over the fourth quarter is expected to be driven by the ongoing support of smaller orders, while larger orders will continue to slow.
The decline in other product sales seen earlier in the year is expected to improve slightly despite the impact of recently strengthened pandemic-related restrictions in some markets.
The group said operating margin in 2020 has continued to benefit significantly from the mix of products sold and is expected to be higher than the prior year.
Shares dropped 5% to 2,358.13p on Wednesday morning.
--Adds shares--