Get the full story at thegrocer.co.uk 13 January 2018 | The Grocer | 5Princes owner tests
water for potential
Young’s acquisition
The Japanese owner of
Princes has been holding
exploratory talks with
Young’s Seafood about a
takeover of the processor
in a deal that could value
the group at up to £200m.
The giant trad-
ing group Mitsubishi
Corporation approached
the private equity owners
of Young’s late last year
to test the water ahead of
a potential acquisition,
The Grocer has learned.
Despite initial opti-
mism that a deal could be
negotiated, the tentative
talks have stalled since
Christmas. “It could have
easily happened very
quickly once the new
year got under way, but it
has since gone quiet,” a
senior City source said.
“Mitsubishi appear to
have downed tools for
the present, so any deal
would be unlikely to hap-
pen before the summer.”
Another dealmaker
added that the sheer size
of the Japanese organisa-
tion, which has annual
revenues of 6.4trn yen
(£42.6bn) and employs
60,000 staff world-
wide, made it “very
b u r e au c r at i c ”.
A senior City source
said: “The investors
behind Young’s may well
push the button on a full
auction at some point in
the first half of the year,
especially if discussions
with Mitsubishi have
come to nothing. But it
is more of a question of
‘when’ not ‘if’ for a for-
mal process to start.”
John West, Dawnfresh,
Marine Harvest, Thai
Union, CP Foods, BRF
and Hilton, which
expanded into fish with
its acquisition of Seachilllast year, could all show
interest, the source sug-
gested. “The underlying
business in Young’s is
good but it lost huge vol-
umes when Sainsbury’s
moved its business so it
needs to rebuild.”
Investment house
Stamford Partners has
been working with
Young’s in the past
few years, advising it
in 2015 when owners
Lion, Highbridge and JP
Morgan explored a sale.
This week Young’s
revealed progress in
plans to expand over-
seas, securing its first
supermarket listings
in the US with selected
SKUs listed in 4,
Walmarts and Sam’s
Clubs, in addition to 800
US outlets owned by
Ahold Delhaize.
All parties declined to
comment.Edward Devlin
Tesco: cancer, diabetes and
heart charities signed upTesco CEO Dave Lewis
has urged suppliers to
slash the price of healthy
products in a bid to help
it fight obesity.
Speaking this week as
Tesco launched a five-
year plan with three of
the UK’s biggest chari-
ties to try to nudge shop-
pers towards healthier
diets, Lewis said the
prices of many products
were “not justifiable” and
were leading to consum-
ers choosing less healthy
options in their baskets.
In a radical depar-
ture from the usual line
of organisations such as
the BRC, Tesco admit-
ted many of the most
healthy products in its
stores were more expen-
sive than less healthy
options. But rather than
“choice edit” Tesco’s
product lineup to skew
promotions to such prod-
ucts, Lewis called on
suppliers to bring down
the cost of products.
“In some cases it’s
justifiable that healthy
alternatives are more
expensive,” Lewis said
at the launch of the Little
Helps to Healthier Living
strategy. “But frankly in
other cases it is not. So ICut ‘unjustified’
premiums on
healthy lines
Tesco boss urges
look to our supplier bases
to ask themselves are
they really being consist-
ent over their own social
responsibility and health
commitments if there is a
price difference when we
know that is a barrier.”
Working in partnership
with Cancer Research
UK, Diabetes UK and the
British Heart Foundation,
Tesco is promising a big
expansion for the Little
Helps to Healthier Living
programme. Lewis said
he believed the scale of
Tesco’s stores combined
with the reach of the big
charities had the poten-
tial to react faster to the
threat posed by obe-
sity than government
legislation.
But speaking to The
Grocer, he insisted the
new campaign would
not involve Tesco remov-
ing choice from custom-
ers, despite the previous
backlash over moves
such as its removal of
added-sugar Ribena from
the kids’ aisle.
The supermarket
launched the first activ-
ity of the new Little Helps
activity last week, with
a campaign to encour-
age parents to swap
unhealthy snacks for
products such as fruit,
and by running price pro-
motions on vegetables.
To promote the new
campaign, Tesco will
also send 20,000 custom-
ers a box of healthy prod-
ucts, in a bid to show that
they don’t have to sac-
rifice taste to swap for
healthier options.Young’s has struggled since losing a Sainsbury’s contract but is progressing in the US
Ian QuinnHEALTHY SHOULDN’T MEAN PRICEY
In some cases it’s justifiable that healthy alternatives
are more expensive. But frankly in other cases it is not –
Dave Lewis, CEO, Tesco