Birmingham, England-headquartered Boparan Holdings Limited, the parent company of 2 Sisters Food Group, on March 11 announced the sale of its Donegal Catch frozen foods business and Green Isle Brands to a consortium of investors led by former Largo Foods CEO Maurice Hickey. A key component of the buying group, which acquired the assets for an undisclosed price, is the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund (ISIF).
Employing 106 people, the purchased company operates a processing plant in Gurteen, County Sligo, and has an office in Naas. Billing itself as “Ireland’s favorite frozen fishmonger,” Donegal Catch is the largest purchaser of whitefish from the Irish catching sector. It transforms landings into a wide line of value-added seafood products ranging from breaded, natural and marinated fish fingers to cod, haddock, plaice and whiting fillets, whole tail scampi and salmon.
The transaction does not include Green Isle’s Goodfella’s and San Marco frozen pizza business, which was sold to Nomad Foods last year for €225 million.
“We are pleased to announce the completion of the sale of Green Isle Brands and Donegal Catch to a good new home. Maurice Hickey is a highly experienced food ceo, and we wish him and the team future success,” said Ranjit Singh, president of Boparan Holdings. “There have been a number of potential buyers for these companies, but as we always make clear, any sale has to be at the right time, with the right buyer, and it had to be a deal that fitted with our long-term strategy.”
He added: “This transaction ticks all these boxes, and will help further simplify our business, enabling us to focus on our core and further strengthen our balance sheet.”
Ranked as Britain’s second largest food company and the No. 1 supplier of poultry products, Boparan’s 2 Sisters Food Group began shedding non-core holdings following a food hygiene scandal at meat processing plants during 2017 that resulted in the loss of major contracts with British retail chains and an investigation by the UK Parliament. The company employs approximately 23,000 people and generates annual sales of more than £3 billion.
