CMA approves sale of Leeds firm’s fruit juice business

The Competition and Markets Authority has accepted a Leeds-headquartered food and drink company’s undertaking to sell its own-label fruit juice business to an approved buyer.

Hain Frozen Foods UK Ltd, based in Thorpe Park, bought Orchard House Foods Ltd in December 2015. Both are suppliers of own-label freshly squeezed fruit juice to retailers and food service sectors.

Back in May of this year, the CMA announced that the merger gave rise to a loss of competition in the supply of own-label freshly squeezed fruit juice to retailers and food service sectors and would be referred for an in-depth investigation.

However, an investigation wouldn’t be required if both companies were able to offer acceptable undertakings to address these concerns.

The companies offered to sell Hain’s own-label freshly squeezed fruit juice business to Multiple Marketing Ltd, a company with over 30 years of experience in the UK fruit juice industry, primarily producing From Concentrate and Not From Concentrate juices.

In August, the CMA launched a public consultation on the remedy package in which it provisionally approved Multiple Marketing Ltd as the proposed purchaser.

During the consultation, the CMA discovered that the owner of Multiple Marketing Ltd was also a shareholder of another supplier of own-label fruit juice, Fruitapeel (Juice) Ltd.

The CMA investigated whether this might affect its provisional decision to approve Multiple Marketing Ltd, including by contacting customers of Hain and Orchard, and concluded that it did not.

The CMA is therefore satisfied with Hain’s undertaking to sell its own-label fruit juice business to Multiple Marketing Ltd.

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