Kerry to divest meats and meal unit to Pilgrim’s Pride for €819m

Kerry has agreed to offload its consumer foods’ meats and meals business in the UK and Ireland to Pilgrim’s Pride for €819 million.

The deal includes brands such as Richmond, Denny, Galtee, Fridge Raiders and Rollover.

In addition to branded and private label meats, the division has also expanded into meat alternative products such as Richmond meat-free sausages. It also specialises in ethnic chilled and frozen ready meals, multi-cuisine ready-to-cook ranges and home delivery meals under the Oakhouse brand.

In the year ended 31 December, the meats and meals business recorded revenues of €828 million, while profit before tax stood at €63 million.

With the acquisition, Pilgrim’s Pride will broaden its portfolio with a value-added protein and integrated prepared foods business. Meanwhile, Kerry says the proceeds from the sale will be used for the continued strategic development of its taste and nutrition business.

“Kerry’s strategy for the past 30 years has been to continuously evolve our portfolio, as we progressed on our journey to becoming a market-leading taste and nutrition company,” said Edmond Scanlon, CEO of Kerry.

“This transaction further enhances Kerry’s focus as a leading business to business ingredient solutions provider for the food, beverage and pharmaceutical markets. Pilgrim’s is a global provider of high-quality food products and I am convinced they will make an excellent future owner of the meats and meals business.”

Following the announcement, the Irish food group will separate and realign the remaining dairy-related activities within the consumer foods business. Kerry added that the strategic review of the dairy business has been completed and there will be no disposal of the dairy business at this time.

Pilgrim’s Pride CEO, Fabio Sandri, said: “Pilgrim’s is already strongly positioned within the global protein market, and this complementary acquisition provides further breadth into the prepared and branded products segment.

“The inclusion of the Kerry consumer foods’ meats and meals business follows our strategy of a well-balanced portfolio of products, geographies and customer base. We believe that the acquisition will also enable the company to develop new and innovative products through the businesses’ combined expertise to support our key customers’ growth objectives.”

The transaction, subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals, is expected to close in the final quarter.

In 2019, Pilgrim’s Pride acquired UK pork producer Tulip Limited from Danish Crown in a £290 million deal.