M&A was certainly on the agenda this week as Norwegian conglomerate Orkla announced a deal to buy local food group Rieber & Søn. In addition, Hain Celestial purchased Premier Foods plc’s spreads asset, and Greencore acquired the UK own-label chilled ready meals unit of Hain. Here is a selection of quotes from this week’s news.
“It has come at a very steep price. Then again, with branded consumer goods companies, you have to pay up” – Danske Markets Equities analyst Martin Stenshall believes despite the price Orkla has paid for Rieber & Søn, it looks to be worth it.
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“A lot of it has been driven by meal deals. We’ve seen growth at the low end of the market and at the premium end” – a spokesperson for Greencore said the UK ready-meals sector was growing at 9.2% after the company bought International Cuisine Limited.
“Things go up and down. Rieber & Søn is a strong company. Even though the figures haven’t been as good as we could have wished in recent years, Rieber & Søn still has very good, strong positions” – Orkla CEO Åge Korsvold talks about how Orkla could improve Rieber & Søn’s performance.
“In the developing world, the chocolate majors first have to build a mainstream segment before Lindt can really enter” – Kepler analyst Jon Cox believes Lindt’s drive into emerging markets is likely to remain limited in the short- to mid-term.
“Our team is working on more or less the recovery of some of the elements we have seen decline in the second quarter and margins is one of those” – Ahold CEO Dick Boer says the company is working on improvements in the second half.
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