Woolworths seeks clearance to buy Beak & Johnston

Woolworths has filed with New Zealand’s competition regulator, the Commerce Commission, for clearance to take over the New Zealand arm of small goods and ready-meals supplier Beak & Johnston.

Beak & Johnson manufactures chilled and frozen ready-to-eat meals, soups and cooked meats under the Pitango, Artisano, Ready Chef, Beak & Sons, Strength Meals and ‘home label’ brands.

It also imports and distributes Impossible Burgers, the high-profile US vegetarian alternative to meat patties, though Woolworths said that right was not exclusive.

The announcement follows Woolworths indicating its intention to buy the company four months ago. 

“We advised them that in our view, the potential transaction is best assessed in a public framework under the commission’s merger clearance regime,” it said. 

In its clearance application, Woolworths claimed that there was no overlap between its and Beak & Johnston’s businesses since Woolworths did not engage in comparable manufacturing in New Zealand and Beak & Johnston was not a retailer.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission is also looking into the supermarket group’s separate proposed acquisition of Beak & Johnson’s broader Australian company.

In October, Beak & Johnston inaugurated a $110 million state-of-the-art pastry and ready meals production facility at Arndell Park in Western Sydney, spanning more than 10,000sqm. 

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