APRIL: TAYTO FINALISES YET ANOTHER TASTY DEAL
Tayto, one of Northern Ireland’s most famous food brands, continued its dominance of the snack food sector.
Tayto affiliate Montagu Group bought up vending machine firm Freedom Refreshments Ltd in Leeds.
Incredibly, the deal is Tayto’s third acquisition after buying Portlebay Popcorn in Cornwall and Tavern Snacks during February.
Tayto boss Paul Allen said the Freedom Refreshments deal will enable it to expand its presence in the vending machine sector.
Meanwhile, parent company Manderley Food Group reported a fall in pre-tax profits to £2.9m in the year to June 2016 from £7.1m, while sales also fell from £174.2m to £163m.
Accounts for the luxury Merchant Hotel owner Beannchor, filed under company name Beannchor No 1 Ltd, revealed it tripled pre-tax profits to over £9m while sales also grew from £18.5m to £19.2m. Separate results for the Merchant Hotel Ltd reveal a 0.3% fall in sales to £11.7m, while pretax profits were £3.16m, up from £1.27m. A change in its financing arrangements with lender Goldman Sachs led to the addition of £8.3m, helping increase its pre-tax profits.
The same change led to a £5.7m gain for Merchant Hotel Ltd.
The business community in Northern Ireland continued to express its annoyance with the political parties for falling to restore power-sharing after Assembly elections in March.
Stephen Kelly, chief executive of Manufacturing NI, warned that delay in agreeing to the terms for devolution of a lower rate of corporation tax “will be will be damaging to both our international reputation to investors overseas, and plans by local firms to make critical business investments in new machinery, production lines and market development”.
There was more good news on the hotels front as the Hastings Hotel Group won revised planning permission for its Grand Central Hotel.
The family company announced that the total investment in the Bedford Street hotel will be £53m, making it Northern Ireland’s largest.
The company had revised its plans for the hotel to add an additional 104 bedrooms, bringing the total number to 304. The development will brings with it the creation of over 150 jobs and is a crowning achievement for founder Sir Billy Hastings.