Dick Smith, the owner of Dick Smith Foods, the Australian food manufacturer that prides itself on keeping profits within Australia, has expressed his disappointment at the news that the company’s main savoury biscuit supplier, Snack Foods, looks set to go into foreign hands.
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Snack Foods is being bought by Arnott’s, a subsidiary of US food manufacturing giant Campbell Soup. Arnott’s made a A$258m (US$148.6m) bid for Snack Foods earlier this week (click here for further details), and the bid was endorsed by the Snack Foods board and its biggest shareholder, billionaire Richard Pratt.
“I’m absolutely distraught that we’ve lost our biscuit manufacturer and I’ll be asking someone to please start making biscuits,” said Smith. He may have a hard time though: while Brisbane-based Paradise Foods supplies some biscuits under the Dick Smith brand, Mr Smith said there was virtually no one left to supply him with Australian-owned biscuits.
He said he may contemplate setting up his own manufacturing facilities or approaching new Dick Smith Food owner Sanitarium to launch a new line.
Smith said the impending takeover had wider implications, confirming his worst fears that every successful Australian business was likely to end up in foreign hands. “An Australian-owned business is an endangered species and we’re just fighting a losing battle.”
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