Premium Brands has acquired Ontario-based meat company Skilcor Food Products – best known as a producer of ready-cooked pork ribs – for an undisclosed amount.
Skilcor says its mission is to provide “innovative portion-controlled products”, and as well as ribs it sells a range of branded packaged meats including chicken drumsticks, Italian-style meatballs and barbecue pork ribbits.
It has annual sales of approximately CAD 27 million ($21.7 million) and operates a specially designed 34,000-square-foot facility in Brampton, Ontario that was built in 2006.
The acquisition comes less than two weeks after Premium Brands bought Canadian meat company Leadbetter – the maker of Cowboy steaks and burgers.
Premium Brands CEO George Paleologou said: “Skilcor further strengthens our rapidly growing presence in central Canada’s protein manufacturing and protein distribution segments. It will not only expand our portfolio of products but will also give us specialised production capacity that will enable us to provide customers with premium-quality, differentiated protein solutions in the high-growth ready-to-eat product category.
“In addition, Skilcor’s experienced and talented management team will further enhance the depth of our protein platform in central Canada.”
Announcing the deal for Leadbetter Foods earlier in September, Paleologou had mentioned building a leading speciality protein platform in Ontario.
As well as Leadbetter, Premium Brands has stakes in meat businesses Harvest Meats, Hempler’s, McSweeney’s and Made-Rite.
It will sense an opportunity to grow Skilcor’s range of branded products, as well as its sous vide-cooked private-label rib business.
Deborah Kinzinger, founder and chair of Skilcor, added: “I have no doubt that Premium Brands is the right partner for us, our company and our people. I am very proud of our team, our culture and our products and of how much we have accomplished since Skilcor was founded back in 1969.”
Source: FoodBev
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