Greencore acquires US food-to-go manufacturer, unveils investment plan

25th Feb 2014 12:09

Greencore Group, an international manufacturer of convenience food, has acquired Lettieri's, a US-based manufacturer of food-to-go products. Lettieri's operates from a purpose-built facility in Minnesota and employs around 130 staff. For the year ended March 2013, it generated revenue of $36.4m (£21.9m). The transaction will be funded from existing debt facilities and is expected to be modestly earnings accretive in the current financial year. The company also announced plans to invest around $10.0m (£6.0m) in its Jacksonville facility in Florida in order to create the capability to manufacture frozen food-to-go products, which Lettieri's specialises in. It said the investment would provide capacity to support up to $100m (£60m) of revenue in products designed for hot eating at both breakfast and lunchtime. The group predicted the first products would come to market in the final quarter of the 2014 financial year. Patrick Coveney, Chief Executive Officer of Greencore, said: "We have been working since 2011 to build a focused, growing, food-to-go business in the US. [This] announcement represents an important further step on that journey. "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."NR