Hopes of 5,000 job rescue by investment company

If the deal goes ahead, the pork operations will be the latest major corporate name to be rescued with help from private equity firm Endless, which has also transformed the fortunes of companies such as Crown Paints.

Vion makes own-brand products for supermarkets, and has been affected by soaring grain prices and a fall in meat consumption.

According to The Sunday Times, Vion UK will break itself up this week by selling its pork operations to the management.

Vion UK, which is better known by its previous name of Grampian Country Food, employs more than 13,500 staff in 38 plants, and is owned by Vion of the Netherlands.

According to The Sunday Times, Endless plans to keep all 10 remaining pork processing plants open.

Vion’s other operations – the red meat and poultry arms – employ 6,000 and 2,500 staff, respectively. Their fate will be decided by whoever buys them.

According to The Sunday Times, Endless is one of several suitors considering making bids for 
the red meat and poultry businesses.

Endless has a strong track record in reinvigorating tired brands.

Successful turnarounds in the past include book chain The Works, school uniform manufacturer Trutex and furniture maker Neville Johnson.

Earlier this year, Endless moved into new territory when it bought the digital effects company Cinesite from Kodak.

The London firm worked on the latest James Bond movie, Skyfall, and has produced effects for the Harry Potter and Pirates of the Caribbean franchises.

Endless hopes the £10m it has spent acquiring and recapitalising the business will give film-makers the confidence to award it new contracts.

The turnaround firm was launched in 2005 and has raised three funds totalling £619m.

Endless launched a new lending venture, Encina, in March to provide debt of £2m and more against balance sheet assets.

The Leeds-based investor recently bought Bathstore from Wolseley in a deal worth £15m.

Endless will invest in the bathroom retailer to improve its 
e-commerce operation and tidy up its 160-store estate.

Analysts had predicted that meat sector rivals and private equity firms were likely to weigh up bids for parts of the Vion UK meat empire.

Vion is quitting the UK market to focus on the Netherlands and Germany.

There were fears that the looming sale could pose a threat to Yorkshire’s economy, because Vion has a number of major factories, including a bacon plant in Malton, North Yorkshire.

Last month, debt-laden Vion said interest in its UK pork, red meat and poultry businesses had been strong, and it was confident of selling the divisions as “ongoing viable businesses”.

However, unions said the sale had created uncertainty for Vion’s workers.

Vion employs 900 staff in its plant in Malton, 400 in its Scunthorpe pork factory and 169 workers at a sausage and burger plant in Hull.

Meat producers are struggling as a poor harvest and drought in the US forces feed prices up.

In November, analysts at Panmure Gordon stockbrokers said “we would expect industry players and private equity alike to be at least running the slide rule over some of the more attractive assets”.

In recent weeks, there has also been speculation that upmarket sausage maker Cranswick would make a bid for Vion’s Malton bacon plant.

When asked whether Cranswick would make a bid for the Malton plant, chief executive Adam Couch told the Yorkshire Post last week: “We’re keeping a watchful eye on it.

“We’re always looking for acquisitions and there are a number of opportunities.”

Cranswick is building a new state-of-the art pastry facility next door to Vion’s site.

Cranswick is investing £10m in the site, which will employ 200 people.

Garry Wilson, the managing partner at Endless, declined to comment last night.

Nobody was available for comment at Vion UK yesterday.

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