Greencore acquires Sandwich Factory Holdings from Cranswick for £15m


Global food manufacturer, Greencore Group has acquired The Sandwich Factory Holdings from Cranswick for total consideration of up to £15m.

The Sandwich Factory operates from a single facility in Atherstone, Warwickshire, where it produces a range of food to go products for distribution in the convenience store and food service channels. Net revenue from manufactured products in the financial year ended 31 March 2016 was £42m.

The acquired business will extend Greencore’s presence in the high growth food to go category outside of its current core business with large grocery customers. The facility also offers an opportunity to modestly increase overall capacity across Greencore’s food to go network and will bring new capabilities in short-run, specialist product formats.

Total consideration will be up to £15m (subject to adjustment post completion in relation to levels of working capital and net debt) and will be funded from existing debt facilities. The transaction is expected to be neutral to earnings in FY16 and modestly accretive thereafter.

Greencore CEO Patrick Coveney said, “This acquisition makes strong strategic sense for Greencore, given our ongoing focus on the food to go market.

'The Sandwich Factory will extend our reach into customer channels in which we are currently under represented, notably convenience stores and the travel sector, and will also bring new product types into the Greencore portfolio.

'We are delighted to be adding more capacity to our manufacturing network, and to be welcoming new colleagues to our business.”

Greencore has also just announced it has recorded revenue of £360.4m in the 13 weeks to 24 June 2016 - an increase of 4.0% on the prior year on a reported basis and of 3.1% in constant currency. Year to Date, the group recorded revenue of £1,052.0m, 6.7% ahead on the prior year on a reported basis and 5.9% ahead on a constant currency basis.