Nomad Foods to acquire Goodfella’s Pizza
Nomad Foods has announced that it will be adding Green Isle Foods (Goodfella’s Pizza) to its portfolio. The approximately €225 million acquisition has been made on a debt-free, cash-free basis.
The acquisition also includes the San Marco brand and two frozen pizza manufacturing facilities.
Commenting on the transaction, Stefan Descheemaeker, Nomad Foods’ chief executive officer, says, “The acquisition of Goodfella’s Pizza comes at an exciting time for our company. 2017 was a banner year as investments in our core portfolio translated into strong organic revenue growth.
“We exited the year on a high note, with our updated guidance reflecting better than expected top and bottom line performance during the fourth quarter. Goodfella’s Pizza creates a new and exciting growth avenue into frozen pizza, a strategic category that is both sizable and complementary.
“We have a strong foundation in place and are well positioned to create shareholder value as we apply our proven toolkit of capabilities to Goodfella’s Pizza and further develop our portfolio of iconic and market leading brands. We are excited to welcome the Goodfella’s Pizza employees to the Nomad family.”
Noam Gottesman, Nomad Foods’ co-chairman and founder, comments, “We are pleased to announce the acquisition of Goodfella’s Pizza. Over the past two years, Stefan and the team have successfully integrated two of Europe’s largest frozen food businesses while strengthening the core product offering.
“With strong organic revenue growth momentum, the time is right to expand into new strategic categories such as pizza, which offer adjacent avenues for further growth and synergies.
“The Goodfella’s Pizza brands and team broaden our product offering and customer reach, and solidify our market leadership within the UK and Ireland. We are pleased to welcome Goodfella’s Pizza to the Nomad Foods portfolio.”
Nomad Foods expects the acquisition to be immediately accretive to adjusted EBITDA and adjusted earnings per share and, within two years post-closing, contribute approximately €150m revenue, €22m to €25m adjusted EBITDA and €0.08 to €0.09 adjusted earnings per share.
The purchase price is expected to be funded through cash on hand and the transaction is hoped to be completed in the first quarter of 2018, subject to certain closing conditions.
In addition, Nomad Foods now expects 2017 adjusted EBITDA to be approximately €328m versus the prior expectation of approximately €325m to €327m and organic revenue growth of approximately 5% for the fourth quarter of 2017 versus prior guidance of approximately 3%.
Nomad Foods will report three months ended 31 December 2017 and audited full year 2017 financial results in March 2018.
