Meadow Completes Acquisition of Nene Valley Foods

Meadow Foods, the UK’s leading independent dairy group, has acquired the business and assets of Nene Valley Foods, a wholly owned subsidiary of Dairy Farmers of Britain Processing, for an undisclosed sum.

26/05/09 Nene Valley is one of the UK’s leading processors of packaged cream for the food ingredients market. It operates from a freehold 2.5 acre processing site at Peterborough that can handle over 25,000 tonnes of packaged cream and produce a broad range of specialist products including sour cream and cultured ingredients.

The purchase will consolidate Meadow Foods’ position as the largest independent supplier of dairy ingredients to the food manufacturing industry. Meadow will continue to operate the Peterborough site in addition to its existing manufacturing facilities in Chester and Holme-upon-Spalding Moor, Yorkshire from which it supplies many of the UK’s leading food manufacturers with ingredients for products ranging from ice cream, soups, sauces and ready meals to bakery and confectionery.
 
Simon Chantler, executive chairman of Meadow Foods, said: “This is a strategic acquisition for our group which consolidates our position as the UK’s leading independent supplier of fresh dairy ingredients.
 
“Our strategy is to develop our business to provide long term security of supply of critical dairy ingredients to the major food manufacturers in the UK. Nene fits into this strategy perfectly and provides an excellent platform to extend our customer base and product offering in the high service area of fresh value-added ingredients”
 
Meadow Foods has an annual turnover of £250m and handles 420m litres of milk and over 80,000 tonnes of cream each year from a network of 400 farmers nationwide.