A poultry joint venture between Cargill’s fresh chicken unit in the UK and Faccenda’s fresh chicken, turkey and duck business has been unveiled as Avara Foods.
With 6,000 employees, Avara will be a standalone business operating across multiple agricultural and operational centres. Both Cargill and Faccenda own a 50% stake in the company.
Faccenda, which supplies meat to the UK’s retail and foodservice sectors, processes more than 100 million chickens and turkeys a year with turnover of £500 million.
Initially announced last September, the deal was cleared in December by the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority.
Andy Dawkins has been named as Avara’s CEO. He said: “Launching Avara Foods brings together two successful businesses with high standards, shared values and strong reputations for building sustainable partnerships with customers, growers and suppliers.
“Now the opportunity is to take the best from both and provide our customers with great service and innovation from a trusted leader in fresh foods.”
“We believe that it is our strong values and talented people that make the difference and will be key to the success of our business now and in the future.
“Our first step is to make sure that there is a smooth transition as we bring together the two businesses as Avara Foods, and establish a solid platform for growth.”
Speaking at the announcement of the company last year, Cargill Poultry president Chris Langholz said: “We believe the two organisations are complementary. Combining into one entity allows us to build on our strengths, grow in the market and better serve our customers. The venture will facilitate greater opportunities to innovate and deliver new and exciting poultry products for consumers.”
Cargill’s UK business will continue to process and sell cooked poultry products from its site in Wolverhampton, as well as operating its poultry import, trading and distribution business.
Source: FoodBev
McCain Foods has completed the acquisition of Irish plant-based frozen food manufacturer Strong Roots. The acquisition follows McCain and Strong Roots’ strategic partnership, which began in 2021 and resulted from a $55 million investment.
Cargill partners with Voyage Foods to scale up alternatives to cocoa-based products to meet consumers’ indulgence needs. The commercial partnership will also provide food manufacturers with nut spreads produced with no nut or dairy allergens used in the recipe formulation.
L’Occitane International owner Reinold Geiger is reportedly close to taking the company private in a deal with Blackstone. The French skin care company’s filing halted trading of its Hong Kong-listed shares this week. This is the second time in months that the Australian billionaire has attempted a buyout.
