Ready meal customers
Based in Consett, County Durham, most of ICL’s most of its revenue of about £45M is derived from several existing Greencore ready meal customers, said the firm.
ICL’s facility will also provide additional capacity for Greencore in the ready meals category in the UK, which “continues to show strong growth,”said Greencore. ICL's gross assets acquired were valued at £16.7M.
Established in 1988, ICL makes chilled and frozen meals for the UK and European retail and foodservice markets.
The firm was owned by Hain Daniels Group, the UK arm of US multi-national food manufacturer Hain Celestial.
A statement from Greencore pointed out: “The transaction will be funded from existing debt facilities and will have a minimal impact on the group's leverage, which we still anticipate will remain below 3.0 times at end September 2012 on a net debt to EBITDA [earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation]basis.”
