December 14, 2012
VION seals agreement to sell UK pork operations
Dutch food firm, VION NV, has reached an agreement for a management buy-out of its UK pork operations, saving around 4,000 jobs.
The deal, led by Seamus Carr, managing director of VION's Pork Business Unit, is backed by UK private equity firm, Endless, which has a strong track record of investing in companies in the UK across a wide range of sectors.
The announcement follows the strategic decision VION announced on November that it was selling its UK food operations, employing in total 13,000 people at 38 sites, to focus on its core food activities in the Netherlands and Germany and its global ingredients business.
Discussions are on-going with a number of prospective purchasers for VION's other UK business units for poultry and red meat.
Peter Barr, chairman of VION UK, warmly welcomed the management buy-out. He said, "When we announced our intention to sell, we highlighted the viability of the UK businesses and the strong interest from prospective purchasers. The swiftness with which we've been able to agree a deal with the management team of the pork business unit, which knows the company inside-out, underlines our confidence in the sales process. It's therefore very encouraging that the pork business unit should be the subject of a successful and swift sale and this augurs well for our on-going discussions with prospective buyers of the remaining areas of the business. This is the very best outcome and I am sure the response from everyone involved, from our farmers and suppliers, to our employees and customers, will be extremely positive."
"We will now be focussing our attentions on securing the sales of our remaining poultry and red meat operations in the UK, which employ around 8,000 people. Both businesses remain profitable and cash-generative and are generating significant interest from prospective purchasers."
VION NV entered the UK in the late 1990s with the acquisition of Key Country Foods, followed by Tranfield and subsequently Grampian Country Food Group in 2008, supplying beef, lamb, pork and chicken products to a broad range of blue-chip customers across the food retailing, food manufacturing and food service sectors.
