The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is proposing an investigation into the anticipated £1.2bn acquisition of Bakkavor by Greencore.
The transaction would create a leading UK convenience food business with a combined revenue of £4bn and approximately 30,500 employees.
Bakkavor, a major supplier of ready meals and desserts to UK supermarkets such as Tesco and Sainsbury’s, earned £2.29bn in revenue last year, more than 80% in the UK. Greencore, based in Dublin with significant operations in Worksop, brought in £1.81bn over the same period through its ready meals and food-to-go products.
The CMA is considering whether the deal will “result in a substantial lessening of competition within any market or markets in the United Kingdom for goods or services.”
The CMA has issued a preliminary ‘invitation to comment’ to allow interested parties to submit to the CMA any initial views on the impact that the transaction could have on competition in the UK.
The CMA has not yet launched its formal investigation into the transaction, with the invitation to comment, closing 22 July, the first part of the CMA’s information-gathering process.