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Premier Foods hungry for RHM

04/12/2006

Two of the UK's biggest food companies have announced they will be combining as Premier Foods acquires rival RHM for £1.2 billion.

Premier, which owns popular brands such as Branston Pickle and Quorn, will have pro forma sales of £2.6 billion, with 93 per cent of those sales from the UK.

In the combined group, RHM shareholders will hold approximately 41 per cent of the issued share capital and existing Premier Shareholders approximately 59 per cent.

RHM own Bisto and Mr Kipling brands and for every RHM share, the shareholders will receive one new Premier share and 83.2 pence.

Robert Schofield, chief executive officer of Premier, said: "RHM is a business with strong brands and talented people. This acquisition brings Premier more great British brands with leading category positions which fit naturally in our portfolio.

Looking to the future, Mr Schofield added: "As we've done before, we intend to drive growth through innovation and investment whilst maintaining a tight control on costs. This acquisition transforms our scale and we believe it will enable us to be a better partner with our retail customers."

The acquisition will mean that the new Premier will have a large portfolio of major brands, the top ten of which will have retail sales of approximately £1.1 billion in aggregate.

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