Premium Brands to buy Vancouver deli food firm in deal worth $55M
by The Canadian Press
Expects to sell manufacturing plant in Langley, B.C., to limited partnership, lease back facilities
VANCOUVER—Premium Brands Holdings Corp. will acquire 168-year-old Freybe Gourmet Foods Ltd. and its modern Vancouver-area plant under a friendly deal between the two deli foods producers.
Sven Freybe will continue to be president and CEO of the Vancouver-area deli foods business founded in 1844.
Premium Brands says the purchase price is $55-million, subject to adjustments that could raise or lower the amount.
In addition, Premium expects to sell Freybe’s manufacturing plant in Langley, B.C., to a limited partnership after the deal closes and lease back the facilities.
Premium Brands says it will receive $22.8-million in net cash from the side deal and own 35 per cent of the limited partnership that buys the plant.
The Freybe plant has excess capacity that Premium Brands will use for some of its other products.
Vancouver-based Premium Brands produces a range of specialty meats and other foods from operations in British Columbia and five other provinces as well as in Washington State and Nevada.
Among its brands are Grimm’s, Harvest and McSweeney’s.
It says the purchase price for the Freybe business will be reduced by any debt assumed by Premium Brands and could be increased by up to $1.25-million per year for each of the next four years if Freybe meets certain performance targets.
