About Greencore
We are a leading manufacturer of convenience food in the UK and our purpose is to make every day taste better. We supply all of the major supermarkets in the UK. We also supply convenience and travel retail outlets, discounters, coffee shops, foodservice and other retailers. We have strong market positions in a range of categories including sandwiches, salads, sushi, chilled snacking, chilled ready meals, chilled soups and sauces, chilled quiche, ambient sauces and pickles, and frozen Yorkshire Puddings.
In FY20 we manufactured 619m sandwiches and other food to go products, 116m chilled prepared meals, and 264m bottles of cooking sauces, pickles and condiments. We carry out more than 10,000 direct to store deliveries each day. We have 16 world-class manufacturing sites in the UK, with industry-leading technology and supply chain capabilities. We generated revenues of £1.3bn in FY20 and employ approximately 12,200 people.
In mid-September Veraison’s stake in Aryzta had increased to almost 10pc. It has now fallen to 4.46pc.
Veraison yesterday said: “The engagement has developed very positively since the position was built up in March 2020, with a performance of over 100pc.”
The fund said was “pleased” about the “significant strengthening” of the board at Aryzta’s AGM earlier this week and “the good progress regarding the strategy implementation”.
“As a result of such progress, the Veraison SICAV Engagement Fund has reduced the shareholding,” Veraison said.
It added that it is “not participating in the speculation about a possible takeover”.
Verasion - alongside Spain s Cobas - led the campaign to unseat a swathe of the Aryzta board, including Gary McGann and Kevin Toland.
Aryzta has an Irish director again, after a raft of departures that has left the once Irish-dominated board with a Swiss majority following a shareholder revolt.
Cork native Gordon Hardie was elected to the board yesterday along with two other new directors, Jörg Riboni and Hélène Weber-Dubi.
He is the sole Irish director on the Swiss-Irish group’s board. Coming into this year four of 10 Aryzta directors were Irish.
US based Gordon Hardie is also a director of Greencore and is an experienced agri-foods executive.
He holds dual Irish and Australian citizenship, and is a graduate of University College Cork and UCD’s Smurfit Graduate School of Business. He is a former president of global agri-food business Bunge Food & Ingredients.
Shareholders in Aryzta have voted in favour of the majority the proposals put forward by the board.
Three new directors - Gordon Hardie, Jörg Riboni, Hélène Weber-Dubi – were elected at the AGM, which was held without the presences of shareholders due to Covid-19 restrictions.
Shareholders representing in excess of 74pc of shares eligible to vote approved all board proposals, with the exception of the motion from shareholder Lodbrok to re-elect Alejandro Legarda Zaragüeta as member of the board.
The board had proposed to reject this proposal, however Mr Legarda Zaragüeta was re-elected with 62pc of the votes.