Marico divests Sil to Good Food group, Denmark

Mumbai, Mar 11 (UNI) Marico Limited (Marico) today announced the divestment of its processed foods business under the brand Sil to a Danish business house, Good Food Group.

The transaction, for an undisclosed consideration envisages a sale of Marico's Sil business to the Indian subsidiary of Good Food Group A/S, Scandic Food India Private Limited (Scandic). The divestment is on a slump sale basis and includes the manufacturing facility at Saswad, near Pune, Marico said in a release here.

Scandic would take on board the present employees at Marico's facility. Marico would distribute the Sil range of products for Scandic for a period of one year.

Announcing the acquisition Marico Consumer product Business CEO Saugata Gupta said that Sil had been divested to enable the company focus on its core business.

''This will release management bandwidth for our core that is Beauty and Wellness. Although Sil was a very small part of our business, it would provide a good platform to Scandic Food to farm the jams and sauces category in India,'' he added.

Mr. Milind Sarwate, Marico's Chief (HR&Strategy), remarked ''We have been accomplishing our organic growth targets at a relentless pace, supplemented by seven acquisitions over the past 35 months. Parallely we have also looked at rationalising our Brand basket, so that we continue to focus sharply on Beauty and Wellness. This divestment is thus a logical sub-set of a portfolio strategy aimed at sustainable profitable growth.'' The deal, carried out directly between Marico and Good Food Group, provides value to both; to Marico through a greater focus on its significantly larger core business; and to Good Foods Group through a meaningful entry in India.

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