UK: Cranswick acquires Crown Chicken for £40 million

Cranswick, the UK manufacturer of fresh and coooked meats, pastry products and sandwiches, has announced that it has acquired East Anglia-based Crown Chicken, the UK's sixth largest poultry producer.

Crown is a leading integrated poultry producer that breeds, rears and processes fresh chicken and has annual sales of almost £84 million ($120 million). The deal includes the whole of the issued share capital of CCL Holdings and its 100% owned subsidiary Crown Chicken, worth £40 million ($57 million).

Commenting on the acquisition, Cranswick chief executive Adam Couch said: “Crown is a well-respected operator in the UK poultry sector and represents an excellent opportunity for Cranswick to continue the development of its UK poultry business, building on the highly successful acquisition of Benson Park, the market leading producer of premium cooked poultry, in October 2014. This acquisition represents important progress in our long term growth strategy of developing new product channels in both pork and other proteins”.

Source: Cranswick