Danish Crown is one of the world’s largest pork companies and has bought the 137-year-old business to bring its foodservice reach into the Midlands, a region spanning central England.
Leivers Brothers has been a supplier of bacon, fresh meat, cheese, sausages and cold cuts to butchers, restaurants and canteens in the UK for many decades.
New jobs wanted
All 30 staff at the firm will retain their jobs and Danish Crown said it hoped to grow the workforce and invest in the business.
“The plan is to enhance the workforce,” Carl Beardshall, chief commercial officer of Danish Crown UK, told GlobalMeatNews.
“We want to not only grow in terms of customers and products, but to absolutely secure the jobs that are here and further grow those.
“We absolutely want to invest in both the company, the systems and the people. And that programme is going to happen very, very quickly.”
Danish Crown wants to position itself nearer to the end-users of its products and the acquisition is in line with its four-wheel drive (4WD) strategy, announced by group CEO Jais Valeur in November 2016.
“This is by no means a major acquisition, but it is an important step in our efforts to create the right conditions for our UK foodservice business to be able to grow organically,” said Valeur in a press statement.
Adding on the comments made by Valeur on why the acquisition makes sense for Danish Crown, Beardshall added: “Leivers Brothers effectively allows us to hit the ground running.
“They have an established group of very loyal customers and we obviously want to get closer to them.”
Plans for the takeover have been ongoing for around a year, but constructive talks have only taken place in the last six months.