Hilton Food Group to enter US for first time as it snaps up smoked salmon producer Foppen

eat packer Hilton Food Group today revealed it is to snap up smoked salmon giant Dutch Seafood Company (Foppen) for for €90 million (£76.9 million) in a move that will see the FTSE 250 firm enter the US for the first time.

Hilton, which processes and packages meat for supermarkets including Tesco, said it plans to raise £75 million via equity placing to part-fund the acquisition.

It is the latest in a string of buy-ups for Hilton, which reported £2.8 billion in revenues and £67 million in adjusted profits last year.

In recent months the firm has snapped up the UK’s largest hospitality-supplying butcher, Fairfax Meadow, for nearly £24 million, and vegan food producer Dalco.

Today Hilton said buying Foppen will give it access to a category “with a strong growth outlook”.

The company was founded back in 1994 in Huntingdon and went public in 2007.

Shares fell 0.1%, or 1.4p, to 1195p, this morning.