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Newlat Food has signed an exclusivity agreement to acquire Diageo’s production facility in Santa Vittoria d'Alba, northern Italy.

Alcohol giant Diageo revealed plans to close the facility, located in the city of Cuneo in Italy’s Piedmont region, in December last year. The site produces and bottles a range of alcoholic beverages, including RTD drinks and ‘low and no’ products.

On Monday evening (12 May), Italy’s Ministry of Enterprises and Made in Italy (Mimit) released a statement announcing that Italian food group Newlat had presented a binding offer to purchase the assets of the plant. Mimit said the plan included the protection of all 349 workers currently employed at the facility, through the maintenance of production and new product development.

Newlat Food confirmed the news yesterday (13 May), stating that the acquisition would enable it to strengthen its offering in the drinks category, a sector where it already generates over €350 million in revenue in the UK.

According to Reuters, Newlat’s chairman and CEO, Angelo Mastrolia, confirmed that the value of the agreement was subject to a confidentiality clause and would be disclosed upon finalisation of the deal. In its statement, Newlat said it would inform the market of the transaction’s final outcome in compliance with disclosure requirements.

A spokesperson for Diageo told FoodBev that the two companies are in "early stage conversations regarding the potential purchase of the Santa Vittoria site currently owned by Diageo".

They added: "Any material developments will be disclosed to the market in accordance with the relevant legal and regulatory requirements".

Newlat has confirmed it is changing its name to NewPrinces following its £700 million acquisition of British food giant Princes last summer.