The UK’s largest fresh-prepared food manufacturer Bakkavor has turned down a £1.14 billion takeover bid from Irish rival Greencore.
Greencore, Britain’s biggest maker of convenience food-to-go, from sandwiches to quiche, has been stalking its rival sandwich-maker Bakkavor Group to create a dominant food-to-go supplier with around £4 billion in annual revenue.
Both companies mainly sell through stores as well as forecourts including Shell or BP petrol stations, so a merger would give the combined group much more pricing power against some of the world’s toughest corporate customers.
However, Bakkavor has rejected two bids from Greencore, the latest of which would have valued the food manufacturer at 1.14 billion pounds, the companies said on Friday (14).
Bakkavor said the offer significantly undervalued it.
Greencore, which operates in the UK and Ireland, has benefited from resilient demand for its pre-packaged sandwiches, chilled soups, and prepared meals, but it faces higher labour costs after the British government raised contributions from employers.
Greencore said its last proposal, made on March 7, provided a "highly compelling value creation opportunity" for both companies, with bigger scale and cashflows if merged, adding that it was evaluating "all strategic opportunities".
Bakkavor, which operates in Britain, China and the United States, reported 4 per cent revenue growth for 2024.
Under the latest proposal, Greencore shareholders would own about 59.8 per cent of the bigger group and Bakkavor investors would own the rest.
Greencore has until April 11 to make a firm offer for Bakkavor or walk away, under British takeover rules.
Meanwhile, the industry experts feel that last week’s eruption of hostilities between Greencore Group and Bakkavor Group suggests a return to normality on Britain’s high streets, following Sainsbury’s revelation that it is seeing a revival of the weekly shopping habit as working from home begins to fade.
The food-to-go market is reckoned to be back to only "85 per cent of pre-Covid capacity", and trade sources suggest it may take another two years to be fully restored.
Greencore has been grabbing new clients such as Asda, and put a positive gloss on opportunities such as other retailers closing cafés and in-store prepared food services in favour of Greencore’s menu.
Philip Morris Limited (PML), the affiliate of Philip Morris International (PMI) in the UK and Ireland, is stepping-up its fight against the illicit trade with the appointment of Catherine Goger to the role of Illicit Trade Prevention Manager.
In this new role, Catherine is responsible for co-ordinating operations to tackle the sale of illicit products in the UK, continuing the company’s working relationships with local authorities and supporting PML’s Field Force and retail partners.
Since joining PMI in 2022, Catherine has led the Fraud Prevention Team at Philip Morris Japan. Prior to PML, Catherine’s career involved fighting money laundering and corruption across Latin America, Asia, and Europe. She also held senior positions at Ernst and Young, HSBC and Prudential. Her background in fighting illegal activity makes her well-equipped to understand how illicit operations impact legitimate retailers’ businesses and strategies to overcome them.
“I am passionate about fighting illicit trade, as I have seen first-hand the—often horrific—outcomes from these illegal activities,” said Goger. “Spending time out in the field joining test purchases with our undercover team, I was astounded by the brazenness of irresponsible retailers – with illicit tobacco products openly available. These retailers sell sub-standard products – some of which have been infested with vermin droppings and asbestos – often to under-aged consumers and vulnerable people. There needs to be more awareness of the illicit trade and the negative impact it has on both responsible retailers’ businesses and on public health.
“We stand by our retail partners, aiming to provide them with guidance and support in the fight against illicit trade. From tackling the trade at the local level – with educational campaigns and test-purchase operations – to building intelligence on a global scale with international organisations; we are taking meaningful steps to cracking down on illicit trade.”
As UK retail crime continues to accelerate, retailers must have the correct loss prevention solutions that deter theft, says an industry expert, citing a recent report highlighting rapid crime levels and its impact on the economy.
A recent report from the think tank Police Exchange revealed that rapid crime levels are costing the UK economy £250bn a year.
Highlights from the report state that mass shoplifting and other crimes are hitting businesses, the public sector and individuals, with an economic cost of £170bn a year, or 6.5 per cent of the gross domestic product.
Thieves continue to terrorise retail staff, snatching high-priced goods, including joints of meat, alcohol and baby powder, whilst throwing verbal abuse at those around them, with an influx of people sweeping items into bags.
According to Harrison Retail, thieves are deterred from sweeping products in-store with effective loss-prevention solutions.
Daryl Bedford, Manager Director at Harrison Retail, said, ”UK retail crime continues to accelerate, and retailers must have the correct loss prevention solutions to enable their customers to interact with products and deter theft.
"Loss prevention solutions such as gravity risers and shelf pusher systems stop thieves from sweeping products physically, forcing them to take a product one at a time.
“The primary cause of stock shrinkage for UK retailers is shoplifting. Retailers can deploy innovative fixtures and systems to limit thieves’ accessibility to high-value merchandise, deterring them from visiting stores and reducing stock loss.
"Limited shelf access with dispensers is the way forward for retailers in their fight against shoplifters. These are designed to limit access to products, meaning the customer can only retrieve a product through a small opening at the front of a shelving unit, preventing multiple products from being taken at once.“
Harrison Retail will offer a live demonstration of its loss prevention solutions at Retail Risk 2025. In the immersion zone at the show, Harrison will showcase its loss prevention solutions in a temporary mock-up shop.
The solutions on show will include Gravity Risers, FSDU Surrounds, Dispensers for chocolate, medicine and scent booster capsules and slow-moving Shelf Pusher systems.
“Amid the cost-of-living crisis in the UK, shoplifting has continued to worsen, and retailers must safeguard their stock and staff. Loss prevention solutions such as Gravity Risers could be the difference between a loss of £1,000 and £100.
"Blockers are enough to deter shoplifters from targeting retail stores due to the inability to sweep stock”, concluded Bedford.
Upcoming government legislation has been called the "nail in the coffin" for the hard-pressed convenience sector by Andrew Boff, a Conservative Londonwide Assembly Member, due to an ill-planned licensing scheme for tobacco, vapes and nicotine products which places retailers in financial and legal jeopardy.
Implementation of the scheme would impose on retailers up-front costs plus annual fees for accreditation, plus staff and security overheads in excess to those currently facing store-owners. Some fear such charges and costs could spell disaster for already struggling local neighbourhood shops.
With excessive taxes and underfunded enforcement leading to what is being described as an imminent collapse of the legal tobacco and vapes market (see our story, Black market tobacco boom axing legal tobacco sales), many now believe that the illicit market is set to eclipse the legal one, at the expense of conscientious, law-abiding c-store owners.
As far as enforcement is concerned, new research has uncovered the shocking fact that over 20 local authorities afflicted with the highest levels of illicit tobacco trading are the very ones that have made no or inadequate funding provisions to implement the new licencing scheme. This is an administrative incompetence that will not excuse the retailers from non-compliance, despite a lack of legal support from the places where they pay their business rates.
A total of 27 councils responded to a survey on the issue, with 92 per cent of them admitting they had not even started to prepare for the new licensing system, (which operates like alcohol licensing).
Just a single council was able to supply figures for their for alcohol licensing funding while none at all affirmed they had allotted a penny for applying the new tobacco and vape rules. Only seven respondents had any records to show what they had expended in tackling illicit tobacco in their catchments over the past five years, and eight of them (including boroughs such as Lambeth, Hammersmith & Fulham, the City of London, Waltham Forest, Bournemouth, Coventry, Wolverhampton, and Liverpool) said they were sure they had spent nothing at all on the problem.
The survey, consisting of a series of Freedom of Information requests, initially contacted 60 councils, of which less than half responded. Just three of them – Glasgow, Wolverhampton, and Camden – said they were undertaking any preparation for implementing the measures contained in the upcoming Tobacco and Vape Bill’s licencing regime.
The situation places retailers in the unenviable position of being forced to police all the points of supply to their shops without administrative support, leaving them liable for any accidental purchase of illicit goods that are flooding every part of the market: the number of cigarettes bought on the legal market fell by 45.5 per cent between 2021 and 2024.
Retailers will face fines and bans if illicit goods are discovered on their premises when, at the same time it will become increasingly difficult to be sure that they are buying legal goods.
In addition, they are liable if they do not possess the necessary licence to sell tobacco and vapes, and yet the machinery for obtaining one is inadequate and almost entirely unfunded – making retailers “low-hanging fruit” for enforcement agencies keen to show they are “tackling crime”.
The only perfectly safe option if obtaining a licence is impossible is for storeowners to cease the sale of products on whose revenue their businesses often depend.
Illegal cigarettes and vapes worth around £2000 have been seized after a multi-agency day of action in Plungington.
This week, officers from Preston’s Neighbourhood Policing Team and Preston Task Force were joined by staff from Lancashire Trading Standards, Immigration, Lancashire Fire and Rescue, Housing Standards and Environmental Health to test compliance at eight premises on Plungington Road.
During the operation, the officers seized around £2000 of illicit tobacco and vapes.
They also arrested two people in relation to immigration offences, one person for possession of a knife and one person for possession with intent to supply a Class B drug.
A vehicle without insurance was also seized.
PC Lloyd from Preston’s Neighbourhood Policing Team said, “This operation demonstrates the strong working relationships that we have with our partners and the commitment we all have to working together to tackle the issues that our communities are facing.”
Councillor Michael Green, cabinet member for Health and Wellbeing at Lancashire County Council said, “It is so important for us to tackle sales of illicit vape and tobacco products, by working together with our partners on days of action like this in the community.
“We will always take action against unscrupulous shop owners who prioritise profits over the health and wellbeing of our community.
"Selling shoddy and possibly dangerous products puts buyers at a significant risk of harm and this is totally unacceptable."
Meanwhile, it is reported that rise in illegal tobacco in the UK is now eating up the legal tobacco sales.
The Treasury is already facing a £2.6 billion black hole from revenue from tobacco sales as increasing enforcement around the habit has led to a growth in illicit sales.
Official figures show that at least 14.5 per cent of the market is now taken up by illegal sales.
The old-fashioned big trolley shop is resurging back in popularity as Brits return back to office, resuming their pre-Covid lifestyle.
Speaking with Sunday Times, Simon Roberts, the chief executive of the supermarket Sainsbury's, stated, "People are back in the office much more, so people are short of time again … and that’s one of the reasons why we’re seeing this resurgence [in] the big weekly trolley shop."
“If you can go to one store and be certain you can get Monday night’s tea for the family for under £5 and something [nicer] for the weekend … more and more customers are making a decision to do that.”
Under Roberts, who is closing in on five years in the top job, Sainsbury’s has refocused on food and, he argues, is now reaping the benefits. Since he took over, Sainsbury’s has increased its market share from 14.9 to 15.7 per cent.
“Five years ago, we couldn’t fill up our supermarkets, our costs were high, volumes were going backwards and we were losing market share.
"Now we are gaining share and putting more volume through our supermarkets because customers are doing more of their big trolley shop here,” he said.
Roberts also stressed on the importance of value deals, saying that customers make decisions every day based on the price on the shelf and that’s never changed.
"If you’re not super sharp on price customers will go somewhere else”, he said.
In the coming years, Sainsbury's plans to refurbish 180 supermarkets, which will see less floor space for clothing and non-food items, an
Sainsbury's plans to open 40 stores in the coming year — 20 supermarkets and 20 convenience stores.
Roberts also criticised government for burdening the businesses with increased costs at multiple fronts, including hikes to employers’ national insurance announced in the budget.
“It is a major challenge. It was unexpected and … there was very little time to plan for it. Everyone recognises that the government had difficult choices to make, but my very strong position has consistently been that we should have phased this over a period of time,” he said.
“What’s significant [about these costs] is that it’s coming in supply and retail at the same time. If you add up the national insurance impact, the wage impact, the regulatory impact, then it’s not going to be a very low level of inflation [for shoppers],” Roberts warned.
Giving an insight on how Sainsbury's is cutting its costs, Roberts revealed how the supermarket has begun using artificial intelligence to automate demand forecasting, a task that was performed by a team of people a few years ago.
“It might be 5C in the north today but 11C here,” Roberts explained. “That makes a difference to what kind of food people are going to want to buy.
“We can now more and more accurately predict that … availability has got better, waste has gone down and customers are getting more of what they want.”