FDBusiness.com

Greencore Group has acquired International Cuisine, a private label chilled ready meal business, from the Hain Daniels Group in the UK. International Cuisine’s ready meal facility is based in Consett in CountyDurham and the majority of its revenue of approximately £45 million is derived from several existing Greencore ready meal customers.

The acquired facility will also provide additional capacity for Greencore in the ready meals category in the UK, which continues to show strong growth. The gross assets acquired were £16.7 million.

The transaction will be funded from existing debt facilities and will have a minimal impact on Greencore’s leverage, which is anticipated will remain below 3.0 times at end September 2012 on a net debt to EBITDA basis.

Greencore is one of the leading convenience food manufacturers in theUKwith strong market positions across sandwiches, chilled prepared meals, chilled soups and sauces, ambient sauces and pickles, cakes, desserts and Yorkshire puddings. The group has also been extending presence outside the UK with an emerging convenience food business in the US.

The Hain Daniels Group in the UK is part of The Hain Celestial Group, a leading natural and organic products company.