A £40m-turnover Cheshire cheesemaker has been bought by the owner of the Kerrygold brand.
FJ Need (Foods), which was founded by John Need in 1973, has signed an agreement to be acquired by Ornua. The family-run business includes a cheese cutting, grating and slicing facility, two cheese brands and a distribution fleet.
Ornua, the Dublin-headquartered owner of brands such as Kerrygold, Shannongold and Pilgrims Choice, has supplied Irish cheese to FJ Need for many years and the acquisition is expected to strengthen this important supply channel.
Nantwich-based FJ Need, which owns the Spinneyfields brand, supplies dairy products such as grated cheese, diced cheese, sliced cheese, block cheese, speciality cheese, butter and yoghurt to the manufacturing, foodservice and wholesale sectors. Its cheese production facility currently produces 16,000 tonnes per year.
Ornua believes that there is significant potential to expand this capacity to take advantage of the growing foodservice market for cheese ingredients both in the UK and international markets. This potential to expand into new sectors, including leveraging Ornua's existing export routes to market, is a key benefit of the transaction identified by the buyer.
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