Crunch talks for Fox’s

THE owner of Maryland Cookies and Wagon Wheels is locked in talks over a potential merger with Fox’s Biscuits, according to reports.

Burton’s Biscuit Company is said to be exploring a tie-up with Fox’s in a move that could see the combined firm float on the London Stock Exchange, Sky News revealed.

Sources told the broadcaster that Clive Sharpe, the ex-boss of British snack firm Golden Wonder, has been pinpointed as a potential chief executive.

Fox’s Biscuits is owned by Boparan Holdings, which has been grappling with the fall out from a string of alleged health and safety breaches linked to its food manufacturing business 2 Sisters. An undercover reporter working at a West Midlands site of 2 Sisters Food Group claimed to witness workers tampering with slaughter dates and mixing meat of different ages.

Source codes on crates of meat were also changed, the investigation by ITV News and The Guardian claimed.

Fox’s, which dates back more than 160 years, makes biscuits in West Yorkshire, Kirkham near Blackpool and Staffordshire.