Food acquisition news : Nomad Foods, a British Virgin Islands-based packaged foods company has struck a €225 million deal to buy the frozen pizza businesses of Boparan Holdings’ Irish firm Green Isle Foods (Goodfella’s Pizza).

Boparan Holdings, owned by Chicken King Ranjit Boparan, is the parent company of UK poultry producer 2 Sisters Food Group. It will use the sale proceeds to bring down its debt and invest the sum in its key businesses.

The deal will see Nomad Foods take over frozen pizza brands such as Goodfella’s Pizza and San Marco and the current private label frozen pizza contracts held by Green Isle Foods with various retailers across the UK and Ireland.

Ranjit Boparan – the CEO of 2 Sisters Food Group, commenting on the sale of Goodfella’s Pizza, said : “We are pleased to announce this transaction of our Frozen Pizza businesses. We have had approaches over the past couple of years for these businesses, and we have been talking to several interested parties during this period.

‘But a sale had to be at the right time, with the right buyer, and it had to be a deal that fitted with our long-term strategy.”

The Chicken King added that the sale of the frozen pizza business marks the first significant move to transform the 2 Sisters Food Group and build a better business.

Through the acquisition of Goodfella’s Pizza, Nomad Foods will grow its portfolio into the fairly substantial and complementary frozen pizza segment.

Nomad Foods will also acquire a couple of frozen pizza manufacturing plants of Green Isle Foods as part of the transaction.

The deal will exclude Green Isle Foods’ frozen vegetable, frozen pastry and frozen fish parts which will stay with 2 Sisters Food Group. Some of the brands in these businesses include UpperCrust, Donegal Catch and Green Isle.

Commenting on the Nomad Foods acquisition of Goodfella’s Pizza, Noam Gottesman – the Co-chairman and Founder of Nomad Foods, said: “With strong organic revenue growth momentum, the time is right to expand into new strategic categories such as pizza, which offer adjacent avenues for further growth and synergies.

“The Goodfella’s Pizza brands and team broaden our product offering and customer reach, and solidify our market leadership within the United Kingdom and Ireland.”

The transaction will have to meet certain customary closing conditions, following which it is likely to be completed in Q1 2018.

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  Boparan Holdings, Frozen pizza manufacturer, Goodfella’s Pizza, Green Isle Foods, Ireland, Nomad Foods