Canadian soft drink manufacturer Cott Corp. has acquired UK food and beverage group Aimia Foods.
Cott will pay an initial US$80m for Aimia, which manufactures products including cereals, creamers and hot beverages.
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In September, Cott will pay a further $33m and an “on-target earnout consideration” of $20m.
Cott, which generates the bulk of its sales through manufacturing retail-brand soft drinks, said the purchase of Aimia would give it access to new categories and expand its customer base.
It said around 85% of Aimia’s sales came from categories in which it was not present. Around 40% of Aimia’s revenue is generated from the wholesale, vending and foodservice channels and 35% of contract manufacturing. Aimia, for example, manufactures hot chocolate sold under brands like Weight Watchers and Mars Inc’s Galaxy brand.
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“The transaction is intended to accelerate in both pace and scale Cott’s acquisition based diversification outside of carbonated soft drinks and shelf stable juices, with a focus on other beverage categories and beverage adjacencies, as well as on driving our channel mix beyond large format retail and supermarket stores,” Cott said today (30 May).
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By GlobalDataEarlier this month, Cott reported a first-quarter loss and falling sales, which followed a drop in revenues and earnings in 2013.
Rob Unsworth, MD of Aimia Foods, said: “We firmly believe that bringing Aimia Foods into the Cott family will provide additional opportunities for the benefit of our employees and customers alike.”
