Birds Eye up for sale

Iglo Group, the company that owns fish finger maker Birds Eye, is being put up for sale with a price tag of up to £2.5bn.

Birdseye

It is thought the frozen food business, which makes poultry, peas and potato products, is to be sold by private equity firm Permira following several approaches.

Backstone and Cinven, also private equity firms, have been touted as possible bidders for the business.

Permira has appointed investment bank Credit Suisse to handle the sale, which is expected to raise approaching €3bn (£2.5bn) according to the Financial Times.

Iglo was bought from Unilever for £1.4bn in 2006. Permira went on to purchase another frozen food business, Findus Italy, from the FMCG company four years later in a deal worth £675m.

The company has grown the Birds Eye brand profile over the last five years, launching a number of new products across Europe.

Iglo has registered 8% profit growth every year since 2008.

Birds Eye has recently shifted its marketing strategy from product-based to occasion-based in a bid to change consumer perceptions of the frozen food sector. Last September it launched the brand’s Baked to Perfection range.

The company, which is led by Martin Glenn, has stated its intention to pursue a potential £350m worth of growth in frozen food sales by 2015 “by improving the quality of food and shopping experience.”

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