Wessanen, the Dutch food group, is looking to sell two frozen food units, Karl Kemper and Righi, as part of an ongoing plan to focus on speciality and organic food in Europe.
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The company, which said in August that it also wanted to offload US natural and organic food group Tree of Life, said today (28 October) that Karl Kemper and Righi had “virtually no synergies” with its frozen food businesses in the Benelux markets.
Wessanen reaffirmed that it wanted to sell Tree of Life before the end of the year and said the process was “progressing according to plan”.
Tree of Life distributes lines from Hain Celestial, Kraft Foods and Dean Foods’ Horizon Organic alongside its own namesake products.
Wessanen CEO Frans Koffrie said: “We are pleased to see further progress is made in Wessanen’s strategic transition to a group with focus on the European organic and speciality food markets, which continue to show vitality despite difficult economic circumstances.”
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By GlobalDataNevertheless, this morning Wessanen posted a net loss of EUR20.1m (US$29.7m) for the third quarter of 2009. The result compared to a net profit of EUR11.8m a year ago but came due to higher financing costs and impairment charges at Karl Kemper and Righi.
Underlying profit stood at EUR5m against EUR17.2m a year earlier. Sales fell 4.5% to EUR171.3m.
