Snack Brands set for sale to Philippines

The maker of Kettle, Cheezels and Samboy is set to be sold for $600m to a Philippines multinational.

A spokeswoman for Snack Brands said the deal would involve no job losses.

Australians opening their kitchen cupboard looking for an Australian owned food brand will now have far less to choose from, with Snack Brands Australia — maker of some of the nation’s favourite salty chip snacks such as CC’s, Thins, Kettle, Cheezels and Samboy — set to be sold to a Philippines multinational.

Going the way of Tim Tams, Vegemite and iced VoVo’s, Snack Brands Australia has agreed to a takeover by Universal Robina Corporation, one of the largest branded consumer food and beverage product companies in the Philippines, for $600 million.

The deal will also see the end to an Australian-owned company whose history is steeped in industrial relations and political folklore, with Snack Brands formerly called Dollar Sweets and at the centre of a landmark Supreme Court case in 1985, which saw it locked in a bitter battle with the Confectionary Workers Union.

It sparked a strike at the Dollar Sweets factory, lasting nearly 150 days, and also triggered a number of bomb and arson threats.

Dollar Sweets was represented in the Victorian Supreme Court by then Melbourne barrister Peter Costello, who would later use the case as a springboard into Liberal politics and become Treasurer under Prime Minister John Howard. The Dollar Sweets case became a rallying point for conservative politicians, law makers and supporters of reform to Australia’s industrial relations system.

Today’s acquisition of Snack Brands is subject to approval by the Foreign Investment Review Board. However, unlike the Federal Government’s decision last week to block the sale of New South Wales electricity supplier Ausgrid to Chinese and Hong Kong bidders — or the blocked $371m sale of Australia’s largest single landholding, the S. Kidman & Co cattle empire, to a Chinese-led consortium — this sale should go through.

Snack Brands is believed to be currently owned by The Real McCoy Snackfood Co, which had bought it from US giant Campbell Arnott’s.

Universal Robina is listed on the Philippine Stock Exchange and already has a significant and growing presence in South East Asian markets. Its intention is to add the marketing advantage of Australian manufactured product.

Universal Robina intends to enable Snack Brands to continue as an independent operation, with management and manufacturing jobs retained.

Snack Brands Australia chief executive officer Paul Musgrave said the acquisition was a growth oriented transaction which was positive for the business and its people.

“What this achieves for the business is to take Australian manufactured product, with its distinct food security advantage, into Asian markets with the benefit of an established distribution force,” Mr Musgrave said.

There would be no job losses, a spokeswoman for Snack Brands said.

“It means there are no intended job losses but instead a stronger growth path with a new partner and the prospects of adding new URC product categories from New Zealand to our local markets. It is also expected to be a positive for many of Snack Brands suppliers such as potato and corn growers,” Mr Musgrave said.

Snack Brands is a manufacturer of potato and corn chips for the grocery trade in Australia.

According to documents lodged with ASIC, Snack Brands is owned by Consolidated Snacks, whose major shareholders include chief executive Paul Musgrave, company director Peter Hopkins, Snack Brands head of supply chain and operations Neville Tapp, Richard and Ingrid Kiaser of Avalon Beach, NSW, Michael Meyer and Snack Brands marketing director Mark Fryday. They will all likely share in the $600m sale windfall.