Valeo Foods have confirmed that they are acquiring Bakery Foods, which was previously owned by the 2 Sisters Food Group. The deal closed at a total consideration of about £67 million.
Christmas Pudding Business
The Bakery Foods firm specialises in creating Christmas puddings, and trades under the name Matthew Walker. It is estimated that it will be worth an extra £35 million in sales for Valeo Foods, which will give them a total annual sales of £1 billion across the whole group.
There are currently around 200 people employed in food jobs like these here, as part of the whole production process for the Matthew Walker line. The facility is based in Derbyshire, and a wide range of puddings are manufactured each year for both the UK market and international markets.
We can assume that no staff changes are going to be made as a result of the change of ownership, at least certainly not below the executive level. There have been no announcements as such. It seems that Valeo Foods feel the business is already being run to a competent level.
“The strength of Matthew Walker’s market leadership, combined with the strong consumer demand for its high-quality products, make the business and its brands a great addition to our existing Valeo UK growth platform,” said Ian Ainsworth. He is the Managing Director for Valeo Foods UK. “It will sit alongside our wider portfolio of products, including our very successful Rowse Honey brand. We look forward to welcoming and working with our new colleagues in Matthew Walker as we pursue our ambitious growth plans for the business.
Hungry for New Business
Valeo Foods have always been hungry for new business acquisitions, and the past nine years have seen them build up an impressive portfolio. Matthew Walker, or Bakery Foods, will be the fourteenth such acquisition within that timeframe. You may recall seeing the recent news that Valeo Foods had also acquired Kettle Foods from the US business Campbell Soup Company. That deal was worth £66 million.
Valeo Foods as a whole group currently employs more than 3,000 people around the world. If you are looking to join them, make sure to keep an eye out for new job postings so that you can be amongst the first to apply – significantly raising your chances of being chosen.
They operate across four strategic growth platforms which are all significant concerns – Valeo UK being just one of them. The others are Valeo Ireland, Valeo Europe, and Valeo Confectionary. It appears that they are continuing to be keen to keep up this growth, deliberately pushing forward into new markets and increasing their share in existing ones.
The same cannot be said for 2 Sisters, which has been strategically selling off a number of its arms in order to focus only on their core operations. There have already been a number of sales making up a wave of change within the UK food and drink industry, which has been exciting to follow.
