Northern Foods sells Dalepak in £6.4m deal
Dalepak makes frozen meat and meat-free grills and owns the Dalepak, Ross and Grassington’s brands.
The firm, which is based in Northallerton, Yorkshire, made a marginal loss on sales of £23m in the year to April 3, 2010. 143 staff will transfer to IFP.
About half of the proceeds of the sale will be paid into Northern Foods' pension pot, said a spokesman. "The business is not one of our core segments, and probably provides a better fit with IFP. It also needs investment."
Shore Capital analyst Clive Black said: “Dalepak, to our minds, has been sitting at the periphery of Northern Foods’ operations for some time and so this disposal does not come as a huge surprise to us, with management’s attention firmly on driving the pizza brand and the McDougall’s’ range."
He added: "Put another way, we could not see a strong case within or without the group structure for Dalepak to make a strong claim for new capital. So, we do not lose sleep over this sale, albeit it highlights an ongoing concern of ours about the balance of revenue contraction versus expansion at Northern."
Dalepak will operate within the IFP Convenience Food Division, said a spokesman: "The Dalepak product range is an excellent fit for our growing convenience food operations in the UK."
IFP is one of the largest beef processors in Europe, owning and operating Anglo Beef Processors Holdings (ABPH) and Anglo Irish Beef Processors (AIBF). The company also owns burger maker Wessex Foods (which has just suffered from a devastating fire); sausage supplier Freshlink Foods and sandwich maker Eatwell UK.
