North West food and drink giant Princes Group is to be sold by current owner Mitsubishi Corporation in a deal worth £700m.
Mitsubishi Corporation, which has owned the Liverpool-headquartered group since 1989, is to sell it to Italian dood multinational Newlat Food S.p.A.
Princes was founded in Liverpool in 1880 as Simpson & Roberts and its household name brands include Branston, Batchelors, Flora, Olivio and Crisp ‘n’ Dry, as well as Princes’ own ubiquitous seafood products.
Princes Group’s chief executive Simon Harrison, said: “This is an exciting prospect for Princes, and we are delighted that Newlat share our confidence in the group’s strategic growth plans, brand strategy, operational excellence and people culture.
“The intended sale remains an ongoing process and further information will be shared in due course.”
Princes went from making a pre-tax profit of £28.9m to a loss of £50.6m in the financial year to March 31, 2023 while revenue increased from £1.4bn to £1.7bn during the year. The company has also cut around 450 jobs over the last two years.
As well as its Liverpool head office, Princes has sites across continental Europe, managed from The Netherlands, sales and marketing offices and oils production in Poland, tuna processing facilities in Mauritius, and tomato processing in Italy.
Incoming owner Newlat has operations in Italy, the UK, Germany and France, through its subsidiaries Centrale del Latte d’Italia, Symington’s, Newlat GmbH and EM Foods. Newlat Food S.p.A and its subsidiary Centrale del Latte d’Italia are both listed on the Milan Stock Exchange.
When the deal completes, Newlat Food S.p.A and its group will become ‘New Princes Group’. Princes Limited will retain its identity and operate as a UK-based subsidiary of the group.
Newlat said the new group would have a combined revenue of around €2.8bn (£2.3bn) and an adjusted EBITDA of about €190m.
It added that the management is “optimistic” of increasing its revenue to €5bn (£4.2bn) by 2030.
