Acquisition of Freshtime

3 September 2019

Greencore Group plc

Acquisition of Freshtime, advancing growth strategy in food to go salads and snacking

Greencore Group plc ("Greencore" or "the Group"), a leading manufacturer of convenience foods in the UK, announces that it has today completed the acquisition of Freshtime UK Limited ("Freshtime").

Freshtime is a well-established supplier of food to go salads, chilled snacks and prepared produce in the UK. Its products are distributed primarily in the grocery and convenience channels and the business operates from a single facility in Boston, Lincolnshire. In the 12 months ended December 2018¹, Freshtime generated revenues of £66.0m and profit before tax of £5.6m. Gross assets at 31 December 2018 were £22.0m.

The acquired business will extend Greencore's presence in food to go salads and chilled snacking and Freshtime's strong customer base is highly complementary to the Group's existing portfolio. Freshtime's production facility is well invested, with an established local supply chain and capacity for future growth. The Group already distributes a large proportion of Freshtime's products through its Direct to Store network, reflected as revenue from the distribution of third party products.

Total consideration for the acquisition comprises an enterprise value of £56.0m, cash on the acquired balance sheet and a normalised level of working capital. This will be funded from existing debt facilities and the Group expects to remain within its medium term leverage range² following the acquisition.  The transaction is expected to be neutral to earnings in FY19 and modestly accretive in FY20.

Greencore has acquired the whole of the issued share capital of The Bay Group Limited, parent company of Freshtime UK Limited, from Mr. John Curran Mills Richmond. 

Commenting on the transaction, Patrick Coveney, CEO of Greencore, said:

"Freshtime is an excellent strategic fit for Greencore. 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. We look forward very much to welcoming the Freshtime team to Greencore."

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¹ Unaudited

² A range of between 1.5x and 2.0x Net Debt:EBITDA as calculated under financing agreements

About Greencore

Greencore is a leading manufacturer of convenience food in the UK. It supplies grocery and other retailers including all of the major UK supermarkets. The Group has strong market positions in a range of categories including sandwiches, sushi, salads, chilled ready meals, chilled soups and sauces, chilled quiche, ambient sauces and pickles, and frozen Yorkshire Puddings.

On an annual basis, Greencore manufactures approximately 706 million sandwiches and other food to go products, 144 million chilled prepared meals, and 226 million bottles of cooking sauces, pickles and condiments. The Group carries out around 7,500 deliveries to stores each day.

Greencore has 16 world-class manufacturing sites in the UK, with industry-leading technology and supply chain capabilities. The Group employs approximately 11,800 people and is headquartered in Dublin, Ireland.

For further information go to www.greencore.com or follow Greencore on social media.

Certain statements made in this announcement are forward‐looking.  These represent expectations for the Group's business, and involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the Group's control.  The Group has based these forward‐looking statements on current expectations and projections about future events.  These forward-looking statements may generally, but not always, be identified by the use of words such as "will", "aims", "anticipates", "continue", "could", "should", "expects", "is expected to", "may", "estimates", "believes", "intends", "projects", "targets", or the negative thereof, or similar expressions. 

By their nature, forward-looking statements involve risk and uncertainty because they relate to events and depend on circumstances that may or may not occur in the future and reflect the Group's current expectations and assumptions as to such future events and circumstances that may not prove accurate.  A number of material factors could cause actual results and developments to differ materially from those expressed or implied by forward-looking statements. You should not place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements.  These forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this announcement. The Group expressly disclaims any obligation to publicly update or review these forward-looking statements other than as required by law.