Latest news with #ABFoods
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
AB Foods to buy Hovis, expanding UK bread portfolio
LONDON (Reuters) -Associated British Foods has agreed to buy bread brand Hovis from private equity firm Endless, bolstering the group's loss-making Allied Bakeries unit which owns the Kingsmill, Sunblest and Allinson's brands, it said on Friday. AB Foods said in April it was "evaluating strategic options" for Allied Bakeries, saying it continued to face a "very challenging market". The group said in May it was in talks with Endless about a potential deal. The purchase price was not disclosed. 'This transaction will create a UK bakeries business that is both profitable and sustainable over the long term," AB Foods CEO George Weston said. The deal is subject to regulatory approval. It will be scrutinised by the competition authorities given the combined bread market share of Allied Bakeries and Hovis. However, regulator the Competition and Markets Authority is under pressure from the UK government to support growth.
Reuters
4 days ago
- Business
- Reuters
AB Foods to buy Hovis, expanding UK bread portfolio
LONDON, Aug 15 (Reuters) - Associated British Foods (ABF.L), opens new tab has agreed to buy bread brand Hovis from private equity firm Endless, bolstering the group's loss-making Allied Bakeries unit which owns the Kingsmill, Sunblest and Allinson's brands, it said on Friday. AB Foods said in April it was "evaluating strategic options" for Allied Bakeries, saying it continued to face a "very challenging market". The group said in May it was in talks with Endless about a potential deal. The purchase price was not disclosed. 'This transaction will create a UK bakeries business that is both profitable and sustainable over the long term," AB Foods CEO George Weston said. The deal is subject to regulatory approval. It will be scrutinised by the competition authorities given the combined bread market share of Allied Bakeries and Hovis. However, regulator the Competition and Markets Authority is under pressure from the UK government to support growth.
Bloomberg
4 days ago
- Business
- Bloomberg
Kingsmill Owner AB Foods to Buy Hovis in UK Bread Combination
By and Katie Linsell Save Associated British Foods Plc, owner of UK bread brand Kingsmill, agreed to buy rival baker Hovis from its private equity backer. AB Foods said the deal with PE firm Endless LLP will let Kingsmill parent Allied Bakeries and Hovis combine production and distribution activities and expand into new product ranges. The combination is subject to regulatory approval, and no value was given.
BBC News
26-06-2025
- Business
- BBC News
Food giant threatens to close UK biofuel plant after US tariff deal
Associated British Foods has threatened to close one of the UK's two bioethanol plants if it does not receive state support after the government struck a tariff deal with the US. It said while the government has committed to "formal negotiations", it will begin consultations with 150 staff at its Vivergo bioethanol business in Hull "to effect an orderly wind-down". As part of an agreement to cut US tariffs, the government said it will remove a 19% tariff on exports of ethanol to the UK, and replace it with a tax-free quota of up to 1.4 billion litres of the fuel. AB Foods said unless help is provided, Vivergo will stop manufacturing before 13 September. The Vivergo bioethanol plant is the UK's biggest. The only other plant making the fuel in the UK is Ensus in Teesside, which is owned by Germany's Sudzucker Group. Ensus has also said it may have to shut its site because the UK-US trade agreement "fundamentally undermined its business position".Under the tariff deal, the US can export 1.4 billion litres of the fuel - equal to the UK's entire ethanol market - duty free, which means businesses in Britain do not have to pay tax if they buy the American fuel. In return, the government secured tariff cuts on UK exports to the Foods set a deadline of 25 June to reach an agreement with the government about support. "Yesterday, our extended deadline for the government to deliver that solution passed," the company talks are continuing, AB Foods said: "Unless the government is able to provide both short-term funding of Vivergo's losses and a longer-term solution, we intend to close the plant once the consultation process has completed and the business has fulfilled its contractual obligations."
Reuters
09-05-2025
- Business
- Reuters
Future of AB Foods' bioethanol plant imperilled by US-UK trade deal
LONDON, May 9 (Reuters) - The removal of UK tariffs on U.S. ethanol in the U.S.-UK trade deal could sound the death knell for Associated British Foods' (ABF.L), opens new tab loss-making bioethanol plant at Hull, northern England, following a warning last month that its future was uncertain. The trade deal, announced on Thursday, will reduce Britain's 19% tariffs on U.S. ethanol to zero through a 1.4 billion-litre (370 million gallon) quota that far exceeds U.S. exports to the UK last year. AB Foods' CEO George Weston told Reuters on April 29 that the group's ethanol business had faced "significant problems" with "effectively subsidised imports". The group, which also owns Primark and a host of grocery brands including Twinings and Ovaltine, said the way in which UK regulations were being applied to bioethanol was undermining the commercial viability of its Vivergo plant in Hull which produces bioethanol fuel for cars and animal feed. AB Foods is calling for changes to UK bioethanol regulations regarding imports. It warned that unless talks with government "improve the position" it could mothball or close the plant, putting about 150 jobs at risk. "We're very clear what we need to do with the ethanol business - that's a regulatory issue that we need government support on." However, the opening up of the UK ethanol market to U.S. producers means the business now faces a new challenge. "The government's last-minute decision to allow tariff-free ethanol imports from the U.S. into the UK is causing great anxiety to many people in the northeast of England, not least to the many employees and suppliers and farmers involved in the UK bioethanol industry," an AB Foods spokesperson said on Friday. They added that the company was working through the detail and "the implications" with the government. Britain's National Farmers' Union warned on Thursday the ethanol measure could mean the loss of a profitable outlet for arable growers which supply the industry. The Renewable Energy Association warned that the deal could enable U.S. producers, supported by U.S. tax credits, to sell into Britain at a cheaper rate than domestic suppliers can match. INEOS [RIC:RIC: closed its ethanol plant at its Grangemouth site in Scotland in January, blaming a reduction in demand for ethanol in Europe combined with increasing pressure from imports of ethanol from other regions. Britain's concession on ethanol and beef was made in return for the U.S. removal of 25% additional tariffs on steel and aluminium, and a quota of 100,000 cars at a duty of 10%. Remaining tariffs were unchanged. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the deal would save jobs in the car and steel industries.
