Brazilian processors eyeing Grampian Country Food Group?

Grampian Country Food Group could be targeted for acquisition by major Brazilian food processors in a move to reduce their dependence on commodity exports and expand globally in retail and foodservice.

Sources at the recent International Poultry Council (IPC) meeting in Porto Alegre, Brazil said either of the two biggest Brazilian food processors - Sadia and Perdigão - could be interested in acquiring Grampian.

Christian Lohbauer, director, Brazilian Chicken Producers and Exporters Association, was tightlipped when asked at the IPC meeting whether the Brazilians wanted to acquire further overseas companies, including UK ones. But sources confirmed that Grampian was probably in their sights.

Perdigão works closely with Unilever in Brazil and employs more than 40,000 staff, having created almost 4,000 in the last year. A spokesman for the company said it had a “vision to grow and expand our operations globally” by 2020. Grampian is already an important customer for Perdigão in the UK.

In May Perdigão announced it had reached agreement with Dutch Holding company Cebeco Groep on the 30M euros acquisition of meat processor Plusfood Groep, which has a hamburger manufacturing operation at Wrexham, north Wales. Once due diligence has been completed and the deal is finalised, Perdigão will become the first Brazilian company in the food sector with operations in Europe.

Plusfood, which makes a range of poultry and beef-based processed and convenience foods and owns the Fribo hamburger and Friki poultry brands, employs 370 staff at three plants. The largest is at Oosterwolde in the Netherlands, where the company’s technology centre is based. The Wrexham facility is said to have “excellent potential for growth and increased production”. There is also a factory in Constanza, Romania, which Plusfood said was “strategically located to access the east European market”. Plusfood currently imports raw material from Brazil and Thailand.

Plusfoods’ main markets are in the UK, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Germany and France. Its main products are nuggets and other breaded products, boiled and grilled chicken, as well as various varieties of hamburgers.

Meanwhile Sadia has plans to expand by 15-20% this year and has demonstrated its international aspirations by opening a new processing plant in Russia. A spokesman said Sadia was looking for more added value production.