Pilgrim’s Pride pays £704m for Kerry Group’s meats and meals
Kerry’s meat arm manufactures branded and private label meats, meat snacks, food-to-go and meat-free products. Its brands include Richmond, Denny, Galtee, Fridge Raiders and Rollover.
Primarily serving the UK market, the operation specialises in ethnic chilled and frozen ready meals, multi-cuisine ready-to-cook ranges, and home delivery meals under the Oakhouse brand.
Strategy review
Kerry said the proceeds from the sale will be used for ‘general corporate purposes’ and the continued strategic development of its taste and nutrition business. In addition, the company announced plans to separate and realign its remaining dairy-related activities within the group’s consumer foods business.
In April, Kerry Group suspended talks over the sale of some of its dairy assets to Kerry Co-operative Creameries, having announced in February that it was conducting a strategic review of its dairy-related businesses while looking for potential buyers of some of its assets. However, the group has now completed the strategic review and confirmed there will be no disposal of the dairy business ‘at this time’.
Edmond Scanlon, CEO of Kerry, said: “This transaction further enhances Kerry’s focus as a leading business-to-business ingredient solutions provider for the food, beverage and pharmaceutical markets. I wish to thank the 4,500 employees of the business for their contribution to Kerry over many years.”
Business value
The financial results attributable to Kerry’s meats and meals business for the year ended 31 December 2020 were revenue of £710m, EBITDA of £74m, profit before tax of £54m, and gross assets of £447m.
Fabio Sandri, CEO of Pilgrim’s, said: “We are pleased to have the opportunity to position Pilgrim’s as a leading prepared foods and branded products player through this acquisition.
“We look forward to welcoming Kerry consumer foods’ meats and meals business’s talented management team and other team members, led by [Kerry consumer foods CEO] Nick Robinson, to the Pilgrim’s family, and we look forward to working together to drive growth and deliver value for all of our stakeholders.”
Robinson said the companies shared ‘a rich heritage in food production’ with Pilgrim’s Pride, with aligned values that ‘put people and customers at the heart of all we do’.
“We look forward to working with our new colleagues to build upon the fantastic progress of these businesses and realise our combined growth opportunities as we enter an exciting new phase,” Robinson added.
Pilgrim’s Pride, which employs approximately 58,000 staff, processes, prepares, packages and delivers fresh and frozen food products in more than 100 countries. Its brands include Moy Park, Country Park, O’Kane and Del Dia.
