Libstar features in many SA lives

Got lukewarm reception from investors, raising R1.5bn at R12.50 per share in recent IPO – at bottom of targeted range of R12.50 to R16. SPOT FAMILIAR BRAND NAMES

The fortunes of Libstar, which raised R1.5 billion ahead of its JSE listing tomorrow, are tied to the Woolworths Food growth story. If you’ve shopped for pasta, salami, cheese, mushrooms, chicken schnitzels, spices, honey, nuts, and sauces from Woolies, you’ve bought food produced or imported by a Libstar company.

Woolies is its top customer:

Three of its 27 business units – Amaro Foods, Ambassador Foods and Rialto Foods – “depend significantly on Woolworths”. Rialto imports, packages and distributes products from Italy and Asia and supplies over 250 product lines to Woolies. Its top five customers (Woolies, Shoprite Checkers, Pick n Pay (PnP), McDonald’s, Spar) accounted for 55% of 2017 revenue.

It produces meat and chicken for McDonald’s SA:

Finlar supplies meat and chicken to McDonald’s. Finlar also makes chicken products for Country Fair, Woolworths and recently won the business to supply chicken schnitzels and other chicken-related products to Spur Steak Ranches.

It manufactures Mrs Ball’s:

Libstar unit Dickon Hall Foods manufactures Mrs Ball’s chutney for Tiger Brands. Another business unit, Montagu Foods, also produces chutney and sauces under store-brand labels for PnP, Shoprite Checkers and Spar. Dickon produces Knorr salad dressing (among other products) for Unilever and all Nando’s sauces.

It’s big in cheese and mushrooms:

Lancewood, is a market leader in hard cheeses (22% market share) and soft cheeses (51% market share). It also produces store brand cheeses for retailers. Denny is the market leader in mushrooms and supplies to Woolworths, Shoprite Checkers, PnP, Spar, Fruit & Veg City/Food Lovers Market, as well as Fruitspot (Massmart). Lancewood and Denny also supply to the food service industry.

It’s a huge private label/store brand producer:

It produces products under dealer own brand arrangements for Woolworths, Shoprite Checkers, PnP, Spar, Massmart, European discount retailer Aldi, US grocery retailer Trader Joe’s and Canada’s Loblaw.

It makes ready-to-eat meals for Shoprite Checkers:

Unit Millennium Foods makes a number of ready-to-eat products and meals for Shoprite Checkers.

It supplies well-known imported brands under licence:

Rialto is the exclusive importer of many well-known brands, including Tabasco and Kiri.

It got a lukewarm reception from investors, raising R1.5 billion at R12.50 per share in its IPO – at the bottom of its targeted range of R12.50 to R16.