Kerry Regulatory News (KYGA)

11 Apr 2006 12:00

Kerry Group PLC11 April 2006 News Release 11 April 2006 For immediate release Kerry announces further expansion of its North American sweet ingredients business Kerry, the global ingredients, flavours and consumer foods group, todayannounced the acquisition of two North American food ingredients businesses -Custom Industries and Nuvex Ingredients. The businesses with annual revenues ofUS$83.7m were acquired for a total consideration of US$83m. Custom Industries is a leading manufacturer of particulates for bakery andready-to-eat cereal applications and confectionery ingredients for sweet goods.Operating from two modern manufacturing facilities located in St. Genevieve,Missouri and Toronto, Canada; Custom has experienced strong growth throughleading food manufacturers, foodservice channels and regional bakeries. Nuvex Ingredients operates from a state-of-the-art, organically certified,production facility located in Blue Earth, Minnesota. Specialising incustomised high-protein and fibre nutritional lines, the business haswell-established core supplier relationships with leading manufacturers ofbreakfast cereals, functional foods and nutritional snacks. Commenting on the acquisitions, Hugh Friel, Kerry Group, Chief Executive, said :"The acquisition of Custom Industries and Nuvex Ingredients is consistent withour strategy of investing in and expanding the Group's technical capabilities innutritional and wellness food categories. Both acquisitions complement ourexisting facilities in the U.S. and Canada, adding new proprietary technologiesand valuable production capacity to meet Kerry's growth plans". - ends - For further information please contact: Telephone: + 353 66 7182304Frank Hayes, Fax: + 353 66 7182972Director of Corporate Affairs, email: corpaffairs@kerry.ie This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange