R&R Ice Cream Increases Presence in Mainland Europe
R&R Ice Cream, with operations in the UK and Germany, is expanding its international business with the proposed acquisition of Rolland, the third largest ice cream manufacturer in France, for an undisclosed sum. Producing private label, branded and licensed products, Rolland produces about 65m litres of ice cream a year with roughly 25% exported to more than 20 countries.
The acquisition, if approved by the French competition authority, would create the second largest ice cream group in terms of supermarket sales in the UK, Germany and France. The combined business would have annual sales of over 500m litres of ice cream.
“This acquisition marks an important stage in our strategy to grow our company on mainland Europe. The ice cream manufacturing sector continues to consolidate. This period of consolidation within the industry will also result in further growth opportunities and I fully expect to be announcing more acquisitions soon,” explains James Lambert, chief executive of R&R Ice Cream.
R&R Ice Cream was created following the £180m acquisition of UK-based Richmond Ice Cream by US investment company Oaktree Capital in 2006 and its subsequent merger with Roncadin, the largest own label ice cream manufacturer in Germany.
