It feels like Chicken Tonight for Symington’s

Leeds-based Symington’s acquired the brands from its rival, Anglo-Dutch consumer goods giant Unilever, yesterday, a move which it says will increase the company’s sales by a third and create more than 20 jobs.

The deal is its second acquisition in recent weeks following the purchase of salad crouton brand La Rochelle in July and comes after the dried food specialist entered the ‘wet’ market by re-launching Campbell’s condensed soup in the UK last week for the first time since 2008.

Ragu and Chicken Tonight, which will bring Symington’s annual gross sales to around £150m, will join other brands in Symington’s growing portfolio including Ainsley Harriott, Aunt Bessie’s, James Martin and Golden Wonder.

Unilever, has carried out a massive shake-up of its brands over the last decade and is now focused on both higher volumes and profit growth.

Chief executive David Salkeld said: “These brands haven’t had an awful lot of attention in the last eight years and last year they were put up for sale.

“We are dealing with the same consumer as our other brands and this gives us the chance to move further into ‘wet’ products. We are confident we can return these brands to growth.”

Sales of Ragu and Chicken Tonight currently total £36m in the UK and Ireland but Symington’s hopes to double the figure after spending £2m on re-packaging and re-launching the sauces.

Both Ragu and Chicken Tonight have a strong heritage in the UK. Ragu was the first pasta sauce to hit the shelves in 1988. Chicken Tonight created mass awareness of the traditional cooking sauce market with its television advert starring former footballer and television presenter Ian Wright and memorable jingle – an advert Symington’s hopes to bring back to life.

Ragu’s new packaging aims to appeal to the brand’s American/Italian heritage to stand out more on the shelf, whilst its recipe changes aim to significantly increase the quality of the product.

Chicken Tonight will also receive an on-shelf facelift and new product development. The company has already created 274 new products across its other brands in the last 12 months.

Under the terms of the agreement, the brands will continue to be manufactured at Unilever’s manufacturing facilities in Holland for the next three years.

During that period, Symington’s hopes to acquire a factory where it can manufacture ‘wet’ products, such as soups and sauces, itself.

In the meantime, it is about to apply for planning permission, under the new Aire Valley enterprise zone, to extend its factory at Thornes Business Park in Leeds where it plans to store 12,000 tonnes of sauces a year.

It wants to add 20,000 sq ft on to the existing building, which would provide space for 5,000 pallets.

Mr Salkeld said: “The planning application is in the process of being prepared. The application should go in over the course of the next three or four weeks.”

The acquisition, for an undisclosed sum, was funded by Bridgepoint Development Capital, Symington’s majority shareholder with 55 per cent, and Yorkshire Bank, as well as further investment from the company’s directors. It was advised by KPMG and Walker Morris.

John Kitson, finance director, said: “It was quite a complicated deal to put together because we have a supply agreement for Unilever to continue to supply us with the products for a three-year period and an agreement to give us a period of time to set ourselves up to manage and run the business. For the next six weeks, Unilever will continue with the administration and storage.”

He added: “However, the fact that we have been able to raise further funding in the current economic climate is testament to how well the business is doing at the moment.”

A real taste of Italy

Ragu began in Rochester, New York in 1937 when the Cantisano family started packing ‘real Italian’ tomato sauce.

The business was sold in 1970 to Cheseborough Ponds, later part of Bestfoods, which was acquired by Unilever in 2000.

Ragu was the original pasta sauce brand in the UK, launched in 1988. It was absorbed under the Knorr brand in 2003.

The Chicken Tonight brand originally launched in 1991 in the United States before entering the UK in 1993. It was absorbed under the Knorr brand in 2003.

The advertising slogan is: “I feel like Chicken Tonight.” In one series of adverts, these words were sung by actors as they flapped their arms.