FDBusiness.com

UK and Irish convenience food group Greencore has acquired Lettieri’s, a leading manufacturer of food to go products for the US convenience store channel. It operates from a modern, purpose-built facility in Shakopee, Minnesota and employs approximately 130 staff. For the year ended March 2013, it generated revenue of $36.4 million (£21.9 million) and attributable EBITDA of $4.7 million (£2.8 million). The transaction will be funded from existing debt facilities and is expected to be modestly earnings accretive in the current financial year.

Lettieri’s products are manufactured frozen but served hot via roller grills and heated cabinets.  They form a primary component of the food to go offering in convenience stores, alongside chilled food to go items such as fresh sandwiches.  The product range includes assembled products (e.g. breakfast sandwiches), extruded products (e.g. stuffed baguettes and breadsticks) and enrobed products (e.g. wrap dogs) for the roller grill.

Greencore also confirms that it is investing approximately $10.0 million (£6.0 million) in its Jacksonville, Florida facility in order to create the capability to manufacture frozen food to go products. The investment will provide capacity to support up to $100 million (£60 million) of revenue in products designed for hot eating at both the breakfast and lunchtime occasions. The group anticipates that the first such products will come to market in the final quarter of FY14.

“We have been working since 2011 to build a focused, growing, food to go business in the US,” says Patrick Coveney, chief executive of Greencore. “Both the Lettieri’s acquisition and the capital investment into Jacksonville deepen our manufacturing capability and widen our product range to more fully serve the food to go needs of our customers in the small store channels. Both investments are consistent with our long-term approach of developing high quality manufacturing facilities to meet the specific growth strategies of our key US customers.”