Italian chocolate maker Ferrero Group set to snap up Fox’s Biscuits for £250m
Italian chocolate maker Ferrero Group is set to snap up Fox’s Biscuits for £250m.
Ferrero, which owns brands such as Ferrero Rocher and Nutella, is hammering out a deal to buy the British biscuit brand from Wakefield-based 2 Sisters Food Group.
Bid: Ferrero is hammering out a deal to buy the British biscuit brand from Wakefield-based 2 Sisters Food Group
A source said no formal agreement had been signed, but that it could be announced this week.
Fox’s started out in 1853 when Michael Spedding began making brandy snaps from his terraced house in Yorkshire.
The business changed its name when Spedding’s son-in-law, Fred Ellis Fox, took over in 1897.
It still has a bakery in its hometown of Batley, West Yorkshire, and employs about 2,000 people.
Fox’s was bought by Northern Foods in 1977 and, in 2011, it ended up in the hands of 2 Sisters, owned by chicken tycoon Ranjit Singh Boparan. Ferrero bought UK chocolatier Thorntons for £112m in 2015 and Denmark’s Kelsen Group last year for around £250m.
Jammie Dodgers owner Burton’s Biscuit Company and European firm Biscuit International were also reportedly interested in Fox’s.