Greencore has acquired US food-to-go operator Lettieri’s and revealed plans to invest £6m in its Florida factory.
Lettieri’s is based in Shakopee, Minnesota, and sells a range of products from breakfast sandwiches to stuffed baguettes, which are manufactured frozen and served via roller grills and heated cabinets.
The company generated sales of $36.4m (£21.9m) in the year ending March 2013, and EBITDA of $4.7m.
The acquisition of Lettieri’s, which will be funded through existing debt facilities, comes after Greencore bought Marketfare Foods and HC Schau & Son in 2012. Since then, Greencore has built up significant business in the US with Starbucks and convenience store operator 7-Eleven.
To further support its US growth plans, Greencore announced today it was investing £6m in its plant in Jacksonville, Florida.
The investment will go into equipment for making frozen food-to-go products than can be heated up for lunch and dinner. It will have the capacity to generate up to £60m of sales, Greencore said.
“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,” said Greencore CEO Patrick Coveney.
“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.”
Greencore said its US sales had risen 60% during the latest financial year ending 27 September and that its business in the country was now profitable.
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