Devos & Lemmens, Aïki, Liebig and Royco up for sale

Investment fund CVC Capital Partners is considering the sale of its Belgian subsidiary, food group Continental Foods, which owns Devos & Lemmens (sauce), Aïki (noodles), Liebig (soup) and Royco (instant soup). The subsidiary should generate at least 600 million euro when sold.

Focus on own brands is paying off

According to financial press agency Bloomberg, the fund is looking for a Continental Foods buyer. The company has a main office and major factory in Puurs (Antwerp) and locations in France, Germany, Finland and Sweden. CVC acquired the company in 2013 from Campbell Soup Group and invested more than 30 million euro to modernize its new subsidiary. That proved to be a good move, because Continental Foods’ turnover grew to 405 million euro last year.

CEO Xavier Belison turned the company’s attention away from cheaper private label production for supermarkets and fully went for its own brands. Private labels contributed 15 % to the group’s turnover, but that has dropped to 5 % now. There is more profit to be gained from its own brands: in four years’ time, its operational cash flow grew from 50 million to 81 million euro.