FDBusiness.com

Kepak Group has agreed to acquire the UK business and assets of 2 Sisters Red Meat (incorporating St Merryn Foods and McIntosh Donald) for an undisclosed sum from Boparan Holdings. 2 Sisters Red Meat has been trading since 2013 and has four facilities in the UK – its flagship site at Merthyr Tydfil in Wales, with its combined beef and lamb processing facilities; a retail packing factory at Victoria in Cornwall, including Talgarrek House; a beef processing site in Bodmin, Cornwall; and McIntosh Donald in Portlethen, Scotland – plus a cold store facility at Truro. The business processes and markets, mainly in the UK, about 250,000 cattle and more than 1million lambs annually from more than 13,000 farmers spread from Scotland to Cornwall.

Kepak is one of Ireland’s leading meat producers with 16 manufacturing plants in Ireland and the UK. The acquisition will significantly increase Kepak’s value and scale providing a number of complementary strategic fits, while strengthening the group’s key customer supply chain partnerships. It also provides both a Brexit and a €/£ hedge for the existing and the new Irish-UK businesses, as well as a sustainable source of UK raw material for Kepak’s meat-based value-added businesses, located both in Ireland and in the UK, which supply Irish, European and UK customers. Under the terms of the agreement, Kepak assumes control of the business with immediate effect.

John Horgan, managing director of Kepak Group, comments: “Kepak has a clear strategy to grow its meat and food businesses in partnership with key customers and in markets that are complementary to our existing businesses in Ireland and in the UK. The acquisition of this red meat business, with its very solid UK retail, foodservice and manufacturing relationships, marks a very significant next step in delivering on our strategy. It is a great fit for Kepak. The addition of these facilities to Kepak Group significantly increases the value and scale of our business. We are delighted to welcome all our new colleagues that will transfer with the acquisition. We look forward to working with them to grow our combined Irish and UK businesses and to further develop relationships with existing and new customers. In doing so we will collaborate closely with the livestock farmers who have been loyal suppliers to these UK sites for many years.”

Ranjit Singh, president of Boparan Holdings, says: “We have had approaches over the past four years for our Red Meat operations, and we have been talking to several interested parties during this period. But as we always make clear, any sale has to be at the right time with the right buyer, and it had to be a deal that fitted with our long-term strategy.”

“This deal represents another major step in transforming 2 Sisters and building a better business,” he adds. “With customers and consumers at the heart of everything we do, we will continue to focus on delivering great quality, great value products every day.”