Zetar boss spells out his vision

Kinnerton Confectionery’s new owner has unveiled an aggressive acquisition timetable over the next five years with plans to buy a second business by the end of this year, a third in the first half of 2006, followed by “a deal a year” thereafter.

Zetar, which was launched on the Alternative Investment Market in January with plans to acquire a clutch of companies in confectionery and snack foods, has already identified a series of targets in confectionery and snacks in the UK and continental Europe, said chief executive Ian Blackburn.

“We are often compared to Glisten [another cash shell set up to buy and build companies in this sector], but we are not going after the same companies.” Glisten is targeting small businesses in order to rationalise production facilities and drive cost savings, he said. Zetar, by contrast, is looking for more established, efficient and well run businesses turning over £15m to £70m, with synergies to come from cross selling and aggregated raw materials purchasing.

“Ideally, I’d want my first deal to be a good branded snackfood business with opportunities to cross-sell to Kinnerton’s customer base and vice versa,” said Blackburn. “We would also look at the opportunities to adapt some of the [new company’s] range using Kinnerton’s character licensing skills.”

A former chief executive of Perkins Foods, Blackburn has an extensive track record in building food businesses, and has been looking at targets in the UK, France and Benelux in a range of snacking sectors.

While there would always be a market for chocolate and sugar confectionery, there could be opportunities to extend Kinnerton’s character licensing expertise into healthy snacks, he said. The priority in the meantime was to reduce Kinnerton’s dependence on seasonal products such as Easter eggs or chocolate advent calendars and produce more ‘adult’ ranges such as luxury ‘lollychocs’ that would have year-round appeal.