The company behind your Tesco sandwich just swallowed the company behind your M&S hummus
Key Points
- Greencore completed its £1.5 billion takeover of Bakkavor on 16 January 2026, creating the UK's largest fresh convenience food manufacturer with around 28,000 staff and £4 billion in pro forma annual revenue.
- The combined business supplies every major UK supermarket with more than 4,000 products spanning sandwiches, sushi, salads, ready meals, pizza, hummus, dips, breads and desserts.
- Pro forma half-year revenue reached £1,318.0 million, up 3.2% year on year, with adjusted operating profit up 15.3% to £73.3 million.
- Greencore is targeting at least £80 million in annual cost savings within three years, with around half due by January 2027 and the full amount by January 2029.
- The group flagged inflationary pressure from events in the Middle East but said 75% of raw ingredient spend is in joint pricing models with customers and energy requirements are fully hedged for FY26.
Greencore has completed its £1.5 billion takeover of rival Bakkavor, putting most of Britain’s fresh supermarket convenience food under one roof.
The combined business employs around 28,000 people and supplies every major UK supermarket, convenience chain, discounter, coffee shop and travel retailer with a portfolio of more than 4,000 products.
The catalogue spans sandwiches, sushi and salads alongside ready meals, pizza, hummus and chilled dips, breads, soups, sauces, quiche and desserts. Pro forma annual revenue for the enlarged group reached approximately £4 billion in financial year 2025.
This means that a shopper grabbing a Tesco meal deal sandwich, an M&S hummus and pitta lunch and a Sainsbury’s pizza for dinner could now be buying three products from the same supplier.
The deal completed on 16 January 2026, funded through a combination of cash and 360,231,087 new Greencore shares issued at £2.75, alongside the assumption of Bakkavor borrowings.
Two former Bakkavor directors, Agust Gudmundsson and Lydur Gudmundsson, have joined the Greencore board.
The first combined half-year results, released on Wednesday (27 May), show pro forma revenue of £1,318.0 million in the six months to 27 March 2026, up 3.2% on the same period a year earlier.
Pro forma adjusted operating profit rose 15.3% to £73.3 million and margin improved 60 basis points to 5.6%. Volumes at the legacy Greencore business grew 0.3% against a flat grocery market, while legacy Bakkavor UK volumes declined 1.3%.
The combined group launched 308 new products in the period, including an award-winning Yorkshire Pudding Christmas wrap and a new protein-enriched salad and wrap range with sports nutrition brand Myprotein.
Greencore is targeting at least £80 million in annual cost savings from the combined business within three years, with approximately 50% due by January 2027, 85% by January 2028 and the full amount by January 2029.
The integration is already removing duplication across head office functions, professional advisers and market data, with the central organisational design going live in mid-April following a people consultation process to reset structure.
Approximately 15,000 former Bakkavor employees joined Greencore on completion.
“We are proud to announce strong half-year results for the new Greencore, having acquired Bakkavor in mid-January,” said Dalton Philips, Chief Executive Officer at Greencore.
He said the group was firmly on track to deliver the cost synergies within three years of completion and remained confident in the outlook despite inflationary pressure from events in the Middle East.
Net debt sits at £817.6 million, up £681.4 million on a year earlier following the acquisition financing drawdown, putting leverage at 2.3x.
Greencore is also exploring a sale of its US business, which has been classified as held for sale.
The group expects full year adjusted operating profit in line with current market expectations of approximately £232 million, with around £10 million of that contribution from the US arm.
Approximately 75% of Greencore’s raw ingredient spend sits in joint pricing models with customers, and gas and electricity requirements are fully hedged for the current financial year, limiting near-term exposure to commodity volatility, the group said.
