In return, Adelie Foods is buying Hain Daniels’ Daily Bread sandwich business and Daily Bread brand to consolidate its position in the UK sandwich market.
Hain Daniels will develop its Luton production site, previously home to its sandwich business, into a High Care Innovation Centre for production of the newly acquired prepared fruits business.
Rob Burnett, Hain Daniels’ CEO, said: “The acquisition reinforces our commitment to sustained growth. We are intent on providing innovative branded fruit and vegetable solutions for a wide variety of occasions and uses and the purchase of the prepared fruit products business clearly strengthens this proposition.”
Consolidation in UK sandwiches
Adelie Foods said the deal would consolidate its already strong position in the UK sandwich market.
The food to go business’s ceo, Chris Thomas said: “This is a real win/win deal for both parties and a collaboration that plays to the strengths of both businesses.”
He said Adelie would be able to leverage real benefits from the additional sandwich volume, while the fruit business was a great fit for Hain’s UK operation.
The companies will work closely together in a joint distribution agreement. This means Adelie will deliver products on behalf of Hain Daniels, in addition to its sandwiches.
Burnett said: “Customers will benefit from more choice from a complementary range of products. Both companies also benefit from efficiency distributions via this collaborative approach.”
Sandwich business
The deal will create additional capacity at Adelie Foods’ Southall factory, which will be used to grow the sandwich business.
Thomas said: “This gives us a fantastic opportunity to set up a new sandwich factory to accommodate volumes currently produced by Hain Daniels at Luton.”
There is a small amount of work required on the infrastructure of the Southall factory before the proposed product transfers can take place. Adelie anticipates that the process will be complete by the end of the first quarter next year.
Ravi Deol, CEO of Adelie’s parent company IHC, said: “We were very clear when we bought Adelie earlier this year that we had ambitious plans for the business and this deal underlines our commitment to increasing Adelie’s share of the dynamic Food to Go market.”
Hain Daniels expects production of the new prepared fruit products to start at Luton in December 2012, with all the newly acquired products being produced there by the end of January 2013.
The news follows the completion of Hain Daniels’ purchase of Premier Foods’ portfolio of packaged grocery brands, including Hartley’s, Gale’s and Robertson’s.
The Histon manufacturing site was also bought by the Hain Celestial Group: Hain Daniels Group’s US-based parent company.
