Hot at the heels of its acquisition of UK company Dairy Crest, Canada’s Saputo Inc. Has agreed to collect the forte cheese enterprise of Australia’s Lion-Dairy & Drinks Pty Ltd.
The Specialty Cheese Business is conducted at two production facilities positioned in Burnie and King Island,
Tasmania, Australia, and employs approximately four hundred people.
The buy charge of A$280m (US$197m), on a cash-loose and debt-unfastened foundation, might be paid in coins at ultimate from cash handy and to be had credit facilities.
The sale to Saputo will encompass all of Dairy & Drinks’ distinctiveness cheese brands, which include King Island Dairy, Tasmanian Heritage, South Cape, Mersey Valley, Heidi Farm, and Australian Gold, as well as cheese production belongings at Burnie (The Heritage) and King Island (King Island Dairy and Cheese Store), and the 2
Lion-owned farms on King Island (Horizon Glen and Kyeema).
The Specialty Cheese Business will enable Saputo’s Dairy Division (Australia) to diversify its product, further adding to and complementing its modern sports. Lion CEO Stuart Irvine stated, “When we introduced the choice to progress a sale of the Dairy & Drinks commercial enterprise closing yr, we made clear our goal to pick out the acceptable destiny ownership arrangements for the Dairy & Drinks commercial enterprise, and to make sure each Dairy & Drinks and the Lion commercial enterprise are preferably placed for boom – with the proper human beings, assets and investment in the back of their respective techniques.
