Packaged food giants’ £1.2bn merger to go ahead after sauce sale

The merger of two UK food manufacturing giants is set to go ahead early next year amid proposals designed to overcome concerns raised by the competition regulator.

Announced in early April, Greencore’s takeover of Bakkavor is set to create a UK food-to-go giant with a combined revenue of around £4billion.

But unions have warned the Greencore deal could result in up to 1,500 job losses as well as factory closures.

Britain’s Competition and Markets Authority last month warned the £1.5billion combination of Greencore and Bakkavor could hurt competition in the supply of chilled supermarket sauces.

Prepared food specialist Greencore, which supplies all major supermarkets as well as Marks & Spencer, on Friday revealed proposals to sell its Bristol-based chilled soups and sauces manufacturing site.

The group is already in talks with ‘a number of prospective purchasers’ for the business, which generated revenues of £47million in the year to 26 September.

Packaged food mega deal set to go ahead after CMA approval in principle 

In response, the CMA said it had in principle accepted the deal could go ahead in lieu of a ‘phase 2’, more intense investigation.

In a joint statement Friday, Greencore and Bakkavor said they are working towards the deal going ahead early next year.

Greencore, which has its headquarters in Dublin, with a British head office in Worksop and 14 factories, supplies nearly 750million food-to-go items each year and employs around 13,300 staff.

London-based Bakkavor employs 17,200 staff across 41 locations in Britain, the US and China.

It makes around 3,500 different freshly prepared food products, including meals, salads, desserts, dips, sauces, sandwiches, and pizza and bread products.

Greencore boss Dalton Philips said: ‘Working with brilliant colleagues across Greencore and Bakkavor, we’ve got a huge opportunity to create real value – for our customers and consumers, our colleagues and our shareholders.

‘Both teams are already collaborating really well on integration plans, and we’ll be ready to hit the ground running once the deal completes in early 2026.’

Bakkavor chief executive Mike Edwards added: ‘The combined group’s scale will enable us to create even more opportunities for colleagues, deliver even better quality, service and innovation for our customers, and generate value for our shareholders.’

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