Total Produce, the spin-off company created by Fyffes' recent demerger, is to join forces with Redbridge Holdings to create a near £400 million fresh produce superpower.
To facilitate the coming together of the two companies' operations, Total Produce has bought Redbridge Holdings for a fee that will eventually reach around £15.2m (€23m). Total Produce will pay an initial £8.6m (€13m) in cash for Redbridge Holdings, with a further £3m (€4.5m) payable in 2010 if pre-determined profit targets are met. The company will also take on a £3.6m (€5.5m) deficit in Redbridge's pension scheme. Redbridge’s turnover was £233m (€352m) last year - at today’s exchange rate - and the company is strong in the UK retail and wholesale sectors. It reported pre-tax profits of £2.4m (€3.6m) last year.
The new company will be based in Peterborough, at Redbridge’s existing headquarters. Denis Punter will be chairman, Total Produce’s Seamus Mulvenna is managing director of the merged operation and Redbridge’s Roger Allmond is finance director.
“Effectively, Total Produce’s UK operation will merge with Redbridge Holidings to form one company, Punter told freshinfo this morning. “The Redbridge name will continue, as all of our supermarket business is carried out under that banner, as well as the Worldfresh, Summerfruit Company and Field Fresh names.”
“Geographically, this fills in the whole of the UK for us. Fyffes - or Total Produce - is very strong in Scotland, Yorkshire and East Anglia and that complements Redbridge’s strengths in the rest of the country. We now have an unrivalled distribution network in the UK.”
He added that the strength of the Total Produce network in Europe will offer huge opportunities to develop and broaden the new company’s horizons through access to supply chain synergies that will benefit both the company and its customers.
“This is extremely exciting and something we have been working towards for a while,” Punter said. “We have had a joint venture with Fyffes in Scotland for a number of years so we know the people very well.
“I personally am a great believer in consolidation and the benefits that brings to serving customers in a competitive market and we see this as a springboard to go on and do bigger and better things.”
