Antrim-based drinks group agrees Merrydown takeover

Drinks group Merrydown today gave its blessing to a £36.7m (€53.3m) takeover by the owner of the WKD spirits brand.

Shares in Merrydown, which makes the Shloer soft fruit and Merrydown cider brands, shot up 14% as terms of the 170p-a-share deal with SHS Group were announced.

Directors said the deal represented fair value for investors and recognised that SHS had the size and resources to be able to grow its brands at a faster rate.

SHS, which controls 11% of shares in the company, owns the WKD and Woody’s drinks brands and supplies food to supermarkets through businesses including Farmlea Foods.

The company is privately owned, employs more than 500 staff in the UK and made annual sales of £254m (€369m) and pre-tax profits of £19.2m (€27.9m) in 2003.

Based at Newtownabbey in County Antrim, SHS also has sites at Cumnock in Ayrshire, Torquay, Northampton, St Albans and Cheltenham.

Merrydown emerged as a takeover target in mid-November and today’s deal represents a premium of 66% on the share price then.

Chairman Andy Nash said: “Whilst the directors remain confident of Merrydown’s future prospects they recognise that a larger organisation such as SHS has the resources to grow the brands faster than Merrydown can as an independent company.”

SHS chairman Joe Sloan said: “We at SHS are in the business of building quality brands. We are therefore delighted to be adding Shloer and Merrydown Cider to our portfolio.”