Bakkavör

Bakkavor Group Ltd
Private
Industry Food manufacturing
Founded 1986
Headquarters London, England
Area served
 United Kingdom, Belgium, Italy, Spain, USA, China (including Hong Kong)
Key people
 Ágúst Gudmundsson, Chief Executive, Lýdur Gudmundsson, Non-executive Chairman
Products Ready meals, soups, sauces, prepared fruits and vegetables, salads, desserts, dips, pizzas, ethnic snacks
Revenue £1.69bn
£6.3m
Total assets £281.3m
Owner Bakkavor Group Limited
Number of employees
 18,000+

Bakkavor Group Limited is a UK domiciled company is the ultimate parent company of Bakkavor Finance (2) plc ('Bakkavor') an international food manufacturing company specialising in fresh prepared foods.[1] The Group operates 32 manufacturing facilities in the UK, and 18 sites in 5 other countries. It employs over 18,000 people with a turnover in 2014 of £1.69 billion. The Group’s head office is in London. It is listed 27th on the 2015 Sunday Times Top Track 100.[2] The Top Track 100 league table ranks Britain's 100 private companies with the biggest sales.

History

Bakkavor was founded in 1986 by the two brothers Ágúst and Lýdur Gudmundsson, to manufacture and export cod roe to Scandinavia. By 1996 Bakkavör had become a medium-sized company selling processed fish products direct to European retailers. Over the next decade the company focused on expanding its operations internationally into fresh prepared foods markets, and by 2008 had acquired a number of businesses in the UK, Europe, Far East and US. Its largest acquisition was Geest plc in 2005. The company delisted from the NASDAQ OMX Iceland in 2009. In 2012 the corporate structure of the Group was simplified with a new parent company domiciled in the UK. Bakkavor sold its French, Spanish and Czech businesses in 2014. This was followed by the sale of its South African operation and a 40% stake in its Italian business later in the year. The Group acquired US prepared foods manufacturer B. Robert’s Foods in January 2015.

In January 2016, Bakk AL Holdings Limited, a company owned by Agust and Lydur Gudmundsson and funds managed by The Baupost Group, L.L.C., purchased shares in the Group. Bakk AL Holdings Limited owns approximately 89% of the outstanding shares in the Group. [3]

Controversies

Following the global financial crisis of 2008, Bakkavor's parent group became heavily indebted, forcing the Gudmundsson brothers into emergency talks with the company's bondholders.[4]

Deloitte subsequently came under scrutiny for its role in the selling of a major stake of Bakkavor in 2009.[5]

The firm's owners, Lýdur and Ágúst Gudmundsson, faced fraud charges in Iceland in 2012 relating to their ownership of the investment group Exista.[6]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Bakkavor sheet" (PDF). Bakkavor. Retrieved 2012-08-29.
  2. ↑ "Top Track 100 league table". The Sunday Times.
  3. ↑ Hipwell, Deirdre. "Fresh owners for Bakkavor". The Times.
  4. ↑ Bowers, Simon. "Icelandic tycoons could regain control of empire built on debt". the Guardian. Retrieved 2015-09-11.
  5. ↑ Mason, By Rowena. "Deloitte under scrutiny over sale of Bakkavor stake". Retrieved 2015-09-11.
  6. ↑ Bowers, Simon. "Icelandic sandwich tycoon Lydur Gudmundsson faces fraud charges". the Guardian. Retrieved 2015-09-11.

External links

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