Carr’s Flour Mills Sold in £36 Million Deal
Carr’s, the UK-based agriculture, food and engineering group, has disposed of Carr’s Flour Mills, its food division, to Whitworths Holdings, a leading British flour milling business, for a gross consideration of £36.0 million and net consideration of £24.9 million after adjustments for working capital and net debt in the business at completion. The disposal will support Carr’s ambition to achieve growth and development in line with its strategic goal of being an international company at the forefront of innovation and technology across both of its remaining businesses of agriculture and engineering.
Tim Davies, chief executive of Carr’s, comments: “The sale of Carr’s Flour Mills Ltd represents an exciting stage in Carr’s strategic development. At a time of increasing competition and volatility in the flour market, consolidation is essential and inevitable. This acquisition by Whitworths presents a great opportunity for the Food division to continue building on the strong foundations laid over many years.”
He adds: “We will continue to focus on our strategy of delivering growth in our UK agriculture business, the development of our international feed supplement businesses and building our specialist engineering division in niche markets across the globe. Carr’s continues to benefit from both operational and geographic diversity and a strong balance sheet and we look forward to an exciting future focussed on delivering growth in our higher margin products and services within the Agriculture and Engineering divisions.”
Martin George, chairman of Whitworths Holdings, comments: “Carr’s Flour Mills Ltd shares a similar history to Whitworths in that it is a long standing business which has received material investment in recent years. The business is a great fit geographically and will give us access to the South East, North of England and Scottish markets that would otherwise not be available and means we have national reach.”
