Greencore acquires UK salad company with value of £56m

Greencore, which makes about half of all sandwiches sold in UK high-street stores, said it had acquired a food-to-go company with a value of £56 million (€61.4 million).

The company completed its acquisition of Freshtime UK Limited, which supplies chilled ready-to-eat salads, snacks and prepared vegetables, on Tuesday and said the deal would be funded through its existing debt facilities.

Freshtime’s products are distributed amongst grocery and convenience retailers and the business operates from a single facility in Lincolnshire. The company generated revenues of £66 million in 2018 and recorded profit before tax of £5.6 million.

"Freshtime is an excellent strategic fit for Greencore," said chief executive Patrick Coveney. "It is a business and a customer set that we know very well and it provides us with an exciting opportunity to enhance our product offering, add further capacity to our manufacturing network, and help drive growth and value for shareholders."

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Dublin-headquartered Greencore, which Mr Coveney has led for more than a decade, also said on Tuesday that it had appointed two new corporate brokers - HSBC and Shore Capital – alongside its existing corporate broker Goodbody.