Permira
Hi it’s Colin, been having a few days off:-)
Quite a lot happening though as no doubt you’ll be aware the anouncement was made on Monday that Unilever has sold its frozen food businesses (which includes Birds Eye) into private equity (a company called Permira).
I think for me and our business there are a lot of opportunities as a result of this. Obviously I’m very disapointed having had 33 years with Birds Eye under the previous ownership—I’ve had some very good times and I’ve had a damn good career out of it…
Anyway I think the whole thing is now set up and there a lot opportunities.
But on a personal perspective I hope we are able to continue the bits that Unilever was committed to. Things like corporate social responsability and the sustainability initiatives so hopefully we can continue that momentum because the whole of the business will not survive into the the future unless it’s sustainable.
So we look forward to working under new ownership—it think it is inevitable there will be a lot of differences, but hopefully all for the good of the business, and personally I’m looking forward to it.
Still a lot of details to work out, we also need to make sure our commited suppliers are kept informed, which we will do… I’ll catch you later.
