Plan to enter US through acquisitions

GREENCORE is planning to enter the US chilled food market through acquisitions.

Greencore said it is actively looking at target companies in the US but would not disclose how much it plans to invest getting a “footprint” in the world’s biggest grocery market.

“You will see the execution, albeit modestly, at the beginning of our US chilled food strategy as we put down our first footprint in the US market,” Greencore chief executive David Dilger said yesterday.

He added that the move into the US will not add “materially” to Greencore’s earnings in 2008 but the market represented an “exciting” opportunity.

The company also announced yesterday that progress has been made on its property banks in Carlow, Mallow, Athy and Littlehampton in England.

Greencore said a draft local area plan for Carlow, the site of one of its two former sugar production factories, is due in the next couple of months. Greencore has ambitious plans for the 330 acre site, which it calls the Carlow Gateway, including shops, offices and residential units.

It said progress was also made on the former Mallow sugar site. In July the local area plan for Mallow was zoned for mixed use and the company is now finalising its masterplan for the site.

In Athy, Co Kildare, the company expects a decision by the end of September 2008 on whether it can proceed with a “significant shopping centre scheme”.

At Littlehampton in Britain the company’s land was named by the local council as the “preferred option” for building 1,500 houses. However, it could be 2010 before a final decision giving permission to develop the site is given.