Noble Foods to get just desserts in £35m deal for Gü

by Marcus Leroux and Catherine Boyle - 21/01/2010

"Gü, the premium pudding maker, was on the brink of being sold last night for up to £35 million. "

Noble Foods, the egg producer and dessert manufacturer, is expected to announce its purchase as soon as today. Negotiations were continuing last night, but insiders said that a deal was “imminent”. Gü was founded in 2003 by James Averdieck with £100,000 in seed capital. He stands to earn a windfall from the deal.

Noble is thought to have seen off competition from Change Capital Partners, the private equity group that counts Luc Vandevelde and Roger Holmes, former bosses of Marks & Spencer, among its partners.

Gü, famous for its melt-in-themiddle chocolate puddings, was put on the block last year by Mr Averdieck. Nestlé, the world’s biggest food company, was reported to have been among the dozen trade and financial buyers in the race for the business. Yoplait, the yoghurt company, was also understood to have been interested.

Noble confirmed last month that it had started talks with advisers at Cavendish Corporate Finance to buy Gü, where Mr Averdieck is thought to be planning to stay on to help to develop the business.

The sale of Gü would mark Cavendish’s second high-profile deal in quick succession. Last month it sold Smythson of Bond Street, a luxury leather goods retailer whose creative director is Samantha Cameron, wife of Conservative leader David Cameron.

Gü, Noble and Cavendish declined to comment.

Noble is buying Gü as part of its expansion into the desserts business. In 2008, the egg company snapped up the Serious Desserts business, which specialises in chilled sweets. It will be able to use its chilled-supply chains and facilities to help to distribute its new pudding range.

Gü, which made £22.5 million in sales of its desserts last year, has tried to expand beyond its upmarket customer base in the recession by offering a new range of £1.99 desserts and a new snack range called Gü Naughties, including Rocky Road and Millionaire’s Flapjacks. It has also built up a £5 million export business to France.

The company’s turnover for the present financial year is expected to be between £25 million and £30 million. Rensow Patisserie, its holding company, made a small pre-tax loss in the year to January 31, 2009, against a profit of £637,000 in the previous year.

Mr Averdieck owns the business with Mordechai Wosner. Mr Wosner also owns Rensow, a supplier to the airline industry.

Gü began its manufacturing operations at Rensow’s Cambridge factory, but originally Mr Averdieck had found inspiration in a patisserie in Brussels, where he was on a posting from St Ivel, the food manufacturer, attempting to launch Utterly Butterly, the spread.

“I had a lot of time in Brussels and I was thinking what would work,” he said. “Just at the end of the road from my office was this fantastic patisserie. I’m a chocoholic, always have been. I thought . .. if I could just copy that and wrap it up in a brand, that would make a great business.”

He will become the latest in a string of entrepreneurs to sell niche, upmarket food and drinks business. Last year the three founders of Innocent Smoothies sold a 30 per cent stake to Coca-Cola. Green & Black’s, the organic chocolate maker, was bought by Cadbury Schweppes in 2005. Craig Sams, founder of Green & Black’s, still works for the chocolate maker.

More Details: http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/consumer_goods/article6995904.ece