Greencore acquires The Sandwich Factory from Cranswick

Greencore has acquired The Sandwich factory from Cranswick for up to £15m, which will be funded from existing debt facilities.

The deal is expected to be neutral to earnings in full-year 2016 and modestly accretive thereafter.

The Sandwich Factory, which operates from a single facility in Warwickshire, generated net revenue from manufactured products in the year ended 31 March of £42m.

Greencore said the acquired business will extend its presence in the high growth food-to-go category outside of its current core business with large grocery customers.

In addition, it said the facility offers an opportunity to modestly increase overall capacity across Greencore's food-to-go network and will bring new capabilities in short-run, specialist product formats.

Chief executive officer Patrick Coveney said: “This acquisition makes strong strategic sense for Greencore, given our ongoing focus on the food to go market. The Sandwich Factory will extend our reach into customer channels in which we are currently under represented, notably convenience stores and the travel sector, and will also bring new product types into the Greencore portfolio.”