Canadian food company Premium Brands has acquired Ontario-based Leadbetter Foods, which manufactures a range of meats including speciality bacon, fresh and frozen burgers and portion-cut steaks.
Leadbetter is perhaps best known for its Cowboy brand of steaks and burgers. It has annual sales of approximately $55 million. It operates two production facilities – including a modern 47,000-square-foot bacon operation built in 2012 – both of which are located in Orillia, Ontario.
“This transaction is the next step towards our objective of building a leading speciality protein platform in Ontario,” said Premium Brands CEO George Paleologou. “Not only does Leadbetter perfectly complement our Ontario-based Belmont Meats burger business, but it will also help with the launch of our Centennial business’ Ontario operations when Centennial opens its new 105,000-square-foot custom cutting and distribution facility in the Toronto region at the end of this year.”
Leadbetter Foods president and CEO Phil Leadbetter added: “We are very excited to be joining the Premium Brands family. We have been doing business with Premium Brands for many years and know, like and respect its unique culture and core values.
“Looking forward, I have no doubt that we will be able to take our business to the next level of its development by leveraging the many advantages that Premium Brands has to offer, including access to capital, marketing resources and a variety of new internal and external sales opportunities.”
The transaction will be funded through Premium Brands’ existing bank facilities and is expected to be immediately accretive to its annual earnings per share and free cash flow per share.
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