LONDON, UK: Kerry Group plc has reached agreement to sell its Consumer Foods’ Meats and Meals business in the UK and Ireland to Pilgrim’s Pride Corporation for a cash consideration of €819m, a news release said.

The Meats and Meals business is a best-in-class provider of convenience food solutions, with leading brands and longstanding relationships with major retailers.

The financial results for the year ended 31 December 2020 attributable to the business were revenue of €828m, EBITDA of €86m, profit before tax of €63m, and gross assets of €521m.

The Meats business is a leading manufacturer of branded and private label meats, meat snacks, food-to-go and meat-free products in the UK and Ireland. Its brands include Richmond, Denny, Galtee, Fridge Raiders and Rollover.

The Meals business primarily serves the UK market and specialises in authentic ethnic chilled and frozen ready meals, multi-cuisine ready to cook ranges, and home delivery meals under the Oakhouse brand.

Edmond Scanlon, CEO of Kerry, commented “Kerry’s strategy for the past 30 years has been to continuously evolve our portfolio, as we progressed on our journey to becoming a market-leading Taste & Nutrition company. This transaction further enhances Kerry’s focus as a leading business to business ingredient solutions provider for the food, beverage and pharmaceutical markets.

Pilgrim’s is a global provider of high-quality food products and I am convinced they will make an excellent future owner of the Meats and Meals business. I wish to thank the 4,500 employees of the business for their contribution to Kerry over many years.”

Fabio Sandri, CEO of Pilgrim’s, commented “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’ talented management team and other team members, led by 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.”

Nick Robinson, CEO of Kerry Consumer Foods, added “Our companies share a rich heritage in food production 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.”

The proceeds from the sale will be used for general corporate purposes and the continued strategic development of the Taste & Nutrition business.

The transaction is expected to close in the final quarter subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals. Following today’s announcement, we will separate and realign the remaining dairy-related activities within the Consumer Foods Business. The strategic review of the dairy business has been completed and there will be no disposal of the dairy business at this time.

As a global food company with more than 58,000 team members, Pilgrim’s processes, prepares, packages and delivers fresh, frozen and value-added food products for customers in more than 100 countries. www.pilgrims.com

Kerry is the world’s leading taste and nutrition partner for the food, beverage and pharmaceutical industries. www.kerrygroup.com

Kerry Group PLC

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17 Jun, 5:43 pm GMT+1 · Disclaimer

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