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Daily Newsletter

27 November 2023

Daily Newsletter

LDC aims to close Les Délices de Saint Léonard factory deal by year-end

The French poultry group reported first-half results this week, with all key metrics up on the previous year.

French poultry group LDC anticipates closing the purchase of the Les Délices de Saint Léonard factory in Morbihan by the end of the year.

LDC, which this week reported a 10.5% increase in first-half turnover to €3.02bn ($3.3bn), announced the proposed deal in October, saying it was in talks with owner Agromousquetaires Group to buy the facility.

The factory, located in Theix in the department of Morbihan, Brittany, produces fresh and frozen pizzas, pancakes, quiches and pies. In October, LDC said Les Délices de Saint Léonard has an annual turnover of around €50m with 265 workers employed at the facility.

“The objective is to finalise this operation by the end of December 2023,” LDC said in its first-half results statement on Wednesday (22 November).

Les Délices de Saint Léonard’s brands include Fiorini, Monique Ranou, Claude Léger and Top Budget.

Elsewhere in LDC’s six-month results to the end of August, EBITDA rose 21% to €290.7m and operating income climbed 60% to €193.4m.

Net profit was up 63% at €153.2m.

Also this week, it emerged that LDC has opened a new logistics centre for its subsidiary Volena in the Mayenne region. The company has not said how much the building has cost but local media reports have suggested a figure in the region of €16m as part of a three-year €150m investment plan in the area.

Volena, LDC’s Normandy poultry branch before the name change, employs 1,500 staff in Mayenne on processing and logistics sites. It has a turnover in excess of €1bn.

The new facility in the town of Louverné, near Laval, is a 5,600 square-meter site. It will bring together products from the Mayennais and Ornais plants in one place and boosts LDC’s presence in the region to seven factories.

Founded in 1968 from the merger of the Lambert, Dodard and Chancereul families, LDC is known for its brands Loué, Le Gaulois, Maître Coq, Poule et Toque, Marie and Nature & Respect.

In this week’s results commentary, LDC said the operating environment is returning to more “normal economic conditions”.

The company reiterated its full-year turnover guidance to be in excess of €6bn. However, the operating profit outlook was raised to €350m, from €300m.

In the longer term, LDC aims to reach €7bn in turnover under its 2026-27 strategy objectives and to hit an EBITDA target of €560m.

Despite rising demand for vegan cheese, complex processes and high production costs could limit market growth

Per GlobalData, the global vegan cheese market will be valued at $1.4 billion in 2023 and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 16.7% by 2030, primarily driven by the rise in the vegan and vegetarian population. However, its production often involves more complex processes and expensive ingredients like nuts or plant-based proteins, leading to higher production costs, which are then passed on to consumers, making vegan cheese more expensive per unit compared to dairy cheese, which could thereby impede its widespread adoption.