VION, the Dutch company which bought Grampian Country Foods in a surprise move yesterday, has promised to pump "serious" investment into the Scottish food processor.
Announcing the takeover, the Dutch company – which is owned by a farmer's union in the Netherlands – said there were no plans to cut any of Grampian's 3,000 staff in Scotland.
Vion yesterday refused to say how much it had paid for the business, bu
ilt up by former agricultural machinery salesman Fred Duncan.
However, there has been speculation the Dutch firm could have paid between £350 and £400 million for Scotland's second-largest private company.
Bill Thurston, Vion's UK managing director, said yesterday that Grampian was a unique opportunity to build a strong UK business.
"Such an opportunity as this doesn't come about often and we think, with our expertise and product knowledge, the two companies could be very attractive," he said.
While he would not disclose investment plans until UK and European competition authorities approved the deal, he said Vion, which has annual sales of more than 7 billion (£5.5bn), was taking a "long-term view". He added: "We've bought a company that is business as usual, and we have to look at investment plans, which, in the last few years probably hasn't had as much put in as it has needed.
"We've come in very much with a plan to grow that business and invest."
Grampian, headquartered in Livingston, is Scotland's second-largest private company by sales and one of the biggest meat suppliers in the UK, with annual sales of around £1.8bn.
It employs around 17,500 staff, including more than 3,000 in Scotland, with factories in Broxburn, Glasgow, Aberdeen and Coupar Angus. While most of its sales come from "own label" brands for major supermarkets, it also sells under the Hall's and Highland Organic brands.
But amid pressure from supermarkets and international competition, the company fell into the red, culminating in a £40.5m pre-tax loss in the year to 31 May, 2006, the latest figures available.
This has led to a wide-ranging restructure, with more than 3,000 job losses in the last three years.
Yesterday Grampian declined to comment beyond a short statement from managing director Eddie Power, confirming the agreement.
"This is an excellent outcome to the process which has been ongoing for some months and brings an end to speculation surrounding the Grampian business," Power said.
The company's annual return shows its media-shy founder Duncan as the majority shareholder, leading to claims he is in line for a pay out for hundreds of millions of pounds from any sale.
However, after Grampian struck a deal to offload its £100m pension deficit to the Pension Protection Fund in 2007 the company claims that Duncan, whose career began as a machinery salesman, was in line for a much more modest windfall.
A spokesman would not give details but said: "It would be fair to say that the amount that has been speculated that our chairman may get from this is considerably way off the mark."
The full article contains 519 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
