UK food market sales

Kettle Foods sale

Not long after the ink has dried on the paper of the GBP£11.5 billion deal between Cadbury and Kraft, comes the the news that another UK food maker has been bought by an American company. The British crisp company, Kettle Foods, is being bought by San Francisco-based Diamond Foods for GBP£400 million in cash.

Kettle Foods, which was founded in 1978, makes premium crisps under the Kettle Chips label and is currently owned by London-based private equity firm Lion Capital. It has a factory in Bowthorpe, near Norwich.

Lion Capital bought the business in 2006 for around GBP£170 million as part of a drive to become the UK's second biggest snack company behind PepsiCo. Lion Capital's other food investments include Weetabix and restaurant chain Wagamama.

Statements

But now Lion Capital have agreed to sell to US producer Diamond Foods. Michael Mendes, chairman of Diamond Foods, said to Press Association, his firm had a "deep respect" for Kettle's "truly premium brand." He went on to say that by adding Kettle, including its talented team of employees, Diamond Food' snack business would have greater scale, which will help the business to drive even greater innovation in the snack market.

"We believe Kettle Foods is a strong fit with the capability to provide solid financial returns for our shareholders, and we plan to invest behind the brand in several areas to position it for long-term success," he said.

Lyndon Lea, from Lion Capital, added: "We are pleased to be selling this iconic brand and highly strategic asset to Diamond Foods, whose heritage of delivering the consumer premium snacking products and market-leading innovation complements the core tenets of Kettle Foods."

Jodie Humphries

Jodie Humphries graduated from Bath Spa University with a BA Hons in Creative Writing in 2008. She has worked for GDS Publishing for the digital group since July 2009. She has previous experience with writing for the web, running her own website since April 2007.

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