What’s Cooking offloads cold meat division to raise profits

What’s Cooking has completed the sale of its cold meat division to investor Aurelius. The company formerly known as Ter Beke builds its profitability and nets 100 million euros in the process.

Profit over sales

After six months of trying, the Belgian food processor has reached a deal: CEO Piet Sanders announced that Aurelius is taking over the cold meat division. That division accounts for 464 million euros in sales (which is more than half of all group sales at 832 million euros), but barely earns 0.3 million euros in operating profit.

What’s Cooking therefore prefers to focus on more profitable divisions, such as its Come a Casa prepared meals. This is quite the turnaround: last year, the company was looking to expand its cold meat division through the acquisition of competitor Imperial Meat, but this failed due to opposition from competition authorities. The company now wants to accelerate its growth in the remaining divisions through further investment and with possible acquisitions.