Faccenda buys duck processor Cherry Valley Foods
Cherry Valley Foods is a duck producer with a turnover of £45M and 320 employees. Its facilities include a factory in Caistor supported by a local agriculture operation of farms and a hatchery.
Cherry Valley Foods is one of only two major duck producers in the UK and has a strong reputation in the foodservice sector.
Strengthen market position
In a statement released today (November 10), Faccenda claimed the planned acquisition of Cherry Valley Foods would strengthen its market position, as the only one-stop UK supplier of chicken, turkey and duck.
It would also create further opportunities for growth in all three areas across a broader customer base, it said.
Between now and the end of December, the management teams of both businesses would work closely together to finalise the acquisition and ensure a smooth transition, Faccenda stated. The financial terms of the deal have not been disclosed.
A number of investments
The deal follows a number of investments by Faccenda. The business entered the turkey market in 2012 with the acquisition of Cranberry Foods. It also started building a £35M, 11,148m2 advanced processing plant at its Telford site, which it expects will be fully operational in 2015.
The company recently announced plans to pump £1M into fighting campylobacter contamination in the poultry industry.
It has launched trials at its factory in Brackley, Northamptonshire, of new SonoSteam technology, which uses steam and ultrasound to kill campylobacter and other microorganisms on the skin and internal cavities of chickens.
Faccenda is one of the UK’s leading food businesses, chalking up sales of more than £400M. It employs 3,000 workers across its chicken and turkey operations, delivering fresh and convenience food to the UK retail and food service sectors.
The business has been supplying UK consumers for more than five decades.
