Cranswick Regulatory News (CWK)

11 April 2016

Cranswick plc

("Cranswick" or "the Company" or "the Group")

Acquisition of leading integrated poultry business

Cranswick, the UK food producer, announces today that it has acquired the whole of the issued share capital of CCL Holdings Limited ("Crown") and its 100% owned subsidiary Crown Chicken Limited from the Thacker family and management. The cash consideration was £40 million, funded from existing bank facilities.

Crown is a leading integrated poultry producer based in East Anglia. It breeds, rears and processes fresh chicken for supply into a broad customer base across grocery retail, food service, wholesale and manufacturing channels. Crown also has a well invested and efficient milling operation which satisfies all of the business' own feed requirements as well as supplying feed to other pig and poultry producers in East Anglia.

For the year ended 31 December 2015, revenue for Crown was £83.8 million and adjusted EBITDA was £6.6 million. Adjusted gross assets of Crown at 31 December 2015 were £28.4 million. Crown employs a total work force of approximately 400 across its operations. The transaction is expected to be modestly earnings enhancing in the current financial year.

Nigel Armes (Mill Director) and Matthew Ward (Agricultural Director) will remain with the business and we welcome Nigel, Matthew and their team to Cranswick and look forward to working with them to develop the business further.

David Thacker, the current Chairman of Crown, retires from the business and we offer David and his family our very best wishes for the future.

Adam Couch, Chief Executive Officer of Cranswick commented:

"Crown is a well-respected operator in the UK poultry sector and represents an excellent opportunity for Cranswick to continue the development of its UK poultry business, building on the highly successful acquisition of Benson Park, the market leading producer of premium cooked poultry, in October 2014. This acquisition represents important progress in our long term growth strategy of developing new product channels in both pork and other proteins."

Enquiries:

Notes:

1. Cranswick's activities are focused within the UK and include the processing and supply of fresh pork, sausage, bacon, cooked meats, premium cooked poultry, charcuterie, pastry products and sandwiches. Products are primarily supplied into the UK food retail, food service and food manufacturing sectors. Results for the year to 31 March 2015 showed revenues of £1,003m and profit before tax of £52.8m.

2. Cranswick expects to announce its full year results for the year ended 31 March 2016 on 24 May 2016.

3. Historical financial information for Crown is extracted from unaudited management accounts for the year ended 31 December 2015.

4. This announcement contains certain forward looking statements with respect to the financial conditions, results of operations and businesses of Cranswick. These statements involve risk and uncertainty because they relate to events and depend upon circumstances that will occur in the future. There are a number of factors that could cause actual results or developments to differ materially from those expressed or implied by these forward looking statements. Nothing in this announcement should be construed as a profit forecast.