Nichols buys packaging firm
VIMTO maker Nichols has bought a 50% stake in a Herefordshire packaging company.
In a statement to the stock exchange Nichols, based in Newton-le-Willows, Merseyside, said it had taken half of Dayla Liquid Packaging with an option to buy the remaining 50% by 2012.
The business said the acquisition would allow it to capitalise on further opportunities in the UK and overseas and give it direct access to the growing premium juice market.
Dayla, based in Ross-on-Wye, specialises in bag-in-box packaging and already works with Nichols on its Cabana brand. In the year to September it had sales of £9.2m. Nichols spent £2.78m on the stake with a further £1m deferred until next December.
Nichols is focused on two main areas: soft drinks – mainly sales and marketing of the Vimto brand internationally – and dispense systems, which supplies more than 5,000 outlets in the licensed trade, leisure and catering markets with soft drinks on draught.
The business, celebrating its centenary year, reported a 15.5% hike in interim profits to £3.2m in August. Sales were up 5% to £29.2m.
Chairman John Nichols said: “This deal gives our dispense systems operation direct access to the growing premium juice market and strenghtens further the existing supply relationship between Cabana and Dayla.
“Like Nichols, Dayla has successfully grown its dispense business in the last five years and we believe our combined capabilities will improve our market position both at homes and overseas.”
