UK-based Premier Foods is reportedly exploring a sale of its Mr Kipling cake brand, months after abandoning plans to dispose of its Ambrosia custard line.
London-listed Premier Foods is in the midst of a business review following the departure of chief executive Gavin Darby last year, with no indications yet of when the process is set to be completed. Speculation in the media has been rife as to what brands might be set for the chopping block from a portfolio that also includes Batchelors soups and Angel Delight desserts.
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The Times newspaper yesterday reported no potential buyer has been lined up for Mr Kipling and Premier Foods may decide to retain the brand, although the paper did not disclose where its information came from. A company spokesperson declined to comment when contacted by just-food.
Meanwhile, the Press Association reported in April that Premier, which also owns Sharwood’s sauces and the Bisto gravy brand, had hired bankers at advisory firm d’Angelin & Co. to explore options for the business based in St Albans, Hertfordshire, now being run by chief financial officer Alastair Murray on an interim basis.
The Press Association said then it understood Premier had hired d’Angelin to help manage the process of breaking-up the group, reportedly under the behest of Paulson & Co., the food giant’s third-largest shareholder after Japan’s Nissin Foods and Oasis Asset Management.
Premier pulled the plug on the planned sale of the Ambrosia brand in February because the board of directors “concluded that in the present business climate the process will not result in a satisfactory financial outcome”.
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