Symington’s deal serves up Chicken Tonight Down Under

In its first major international venture, the Leeds business will license three brands, including Chicken Tonight, in Australia and New Zealand.

The agreement is expected to add up to £40m to the group’s turnover, which hit £165m last year.

Directors at Symington’s hope they will be able to repeat their success in the UK in relaunching well-loved brands to retail customers and consumers.

“We believe there are quite big cultural and consumer similarities between the UK and Australia,” said Henrik Pade, business development director.

“While it’s 12,000 miles away, mentally it’s just around the corner. While they have a little more sunshine and burn the barbecue more than we do in Leeds, when you walk down a supermarket aisle you see a lot of product similarities.

“You see people shopping in a very similar manner to the way they do in the UK.”

Under the licensing agreement, Symington’s will take over product development, marketing, sales and distribution of Unilever’s wet sauces portfolio in Australia and New Zealand.

The group took over the Chicken Tonight and Ragu brands in Britain in August 2011 and invested in new product launches and branding and marketing initiatives.

David Salkeld, chief executive, said: “With the consumer and category insight we have, we can do the same in Australia as we have in the UK – return brands to growth.

“We did the due diligence and knew we could do the same out there. We talked to the major supermarkets in Australia who have welcomed us with open arms.”

He said the company will pursue an ambitious new product development programme in Australia and New Zealand. Mr Salkeld added: “We fully expect it to grow, maybe even faster than the UK business.”

Symington’s will establish a subsidiary office in Melbourne to oversee the operation, which will be based at Unilever’s factory in Victoria.

At the same time, the Melbourne office will develop the group’s branded and private label convenience food business in Australia.

Specialist lawyers from Walker Morris, one of the ‘big six’ law firms in Leeds, advised the group on the deal.

Richard Naish, a partner, said: “We were delighted to be able to advise on this latest transaction, which not only involved significant liaison with various advisory firms in Leeds, London and Australia, but is an important landmark in Symington’s development.”

Mr Pade said management and the group’s private equity backer Intermediate Capital Group invested in the deal.

The multi-billion pound alternative investment fund bought a 49.9 per cent stake in Symington’s in June last year in a deal that valued the Leeds company at £125m.

Management increased its share of the company to 50.1 per cent.

Mr Salkeld and Mr Pade invested in the business in 2007 with backing from private equity firm Bridgepoint and Yorkshire Bank.

Symington’s was said to be worth £45m at the time.

Mr Salkeld said he expects turnover to increase over the next year to £200m, based on organic growth through new product development.

He said last year’s management buyout was codenamed Project Speedboat.

“That’s what we do. We are a fast and nimble speedboat to the supertankers in the global food industry. We compete with Unilever, Mars, Heinz, Nestle, Premier Foods and Mitsubishi.”

The company employs around 850 people across six sites in Leeds and Bradford.

Symington’s brands include Campbell’s, Ainsley Harriott and Aunt Bessie’s.

Twitter: @bernardginns