Mergers & Acquisitions & Joint Ventures - includes, Cuisine de France announces Tim Hortons joint venture

Eurofood, March 29, 2001

Mergers & Acquisitions & Joint Ventures

Buyer                 Target              Country

Legal & General       Young's Bluecrest   UK

General Mills         Golden Wonder       US/UK

Cuisine de France     Tim Hortons         Ireland/UK/US/
                                          Canada

Dippy Foods           US Foods
                      International       US

DM Acquisition Corp   Dairy Mart
                      Convenience
                      Stores              US

N/A                   Two UK Vlasic
                      Businesses          US/UK

Danone                Galletas Noel       France/Columbia

Group Bimbo           Plus Vita           Mexico/Brazil

Supermercados         Dia outlets         Spain/France
Llobet

Carrefour             TotalFinaElf        France

Brake Bros            Roach Frozen        UK
                      Foods

Roach Foods           Wicketts            UK

MBO                   Northumbrian Fine   UK
                      Foods

Dumeco                SturkoMeat          Netherlands

Petra Foods           Meiji Seika
                      Kaisha              Indonesia

Inter Link Foods      Nicholas & Harris   UK

ConAgra               Artel               Canada

Maple Leaf Foods      Schneider           Canada

Buyer                 Remarks

Legal & General       The venture capital division of Legal
                      & General is purchasing United Biscuits'
                      44% stake in the frozen and chilled
                      seafood business Young's Bluecrest, leaving
                      the biscuit producer to concentrate on its
                      core snacks. The deal will also increase
                      Legal & General's stake in the firm to 79%.

General Mills         The US cereal giant has signed an agreement
                      with Golden Wonder of the UK, which will see
                      the UK-based firm produce General Mills'
                      Bugles savoury snack. General Mills is
                      looking to make an impact in the UK snack
                      market, which is dominated by Walkers, a
                      division of PepsiCo's successful Frito-Lay
                      snack unit.

Cuisine de France     Irish firm IAWS Group has said its Cuisine
                      de France subsidiary has created a 75m
                      [European Dollar] joint venture with
                      Canada's Tim Hortons. The joint venture will
                      produce and distribute part baked goods for
                      Tim Hortons in North America and Cuisine de
                      France outlets in the US.

Dippy Foods           Dippy Foods has said it has agreed, in
                      principal, to create a joint venture company
                      with compatriot firm US Foods International,
                      which would see both firms' operations in the
                      food services industry expand.

DM Acquisition Corp   DM Acquisition Corp, which is controlled by
                      Dairy Mart chairman Robert Stein Jr, will
                      acquire the convenience store operator and
                      merge it into DM.

N/A                   US firm Vlasic, which recently filed for
                      bankruptcy protection, has agreed to sell its
                      two businesses in the UK, namely Freshbake
                      and SonA canned and jared fruit and
                      vegetables.

Danone                French dairy and food firm Danone has agreed
                      to purchase US$18m (20m [European Dollar])
                      worth of shares in Columbia's leading biscuit
                      maker Galletas Noel. The deal takes Danone's
                      stake in the firm from 20% to 30%.

Group Bimbo           Mexican food giant Grupo Bimbo has bought
                      Brazilian bread firm Plus Vita from US
                      agribusiness firm Bunge for US$63.5m (70.8m
                      [European Dollar]), gaining a foothold in
                      the only big Latin American country where
                      it does not have a presence.

Supermercados         Carrefour has agreed to sell nine
Llobet                supermarkets in the Cataluna region in
                      Spain. Catalan firm Supermercados Llobet
                      is purchasing nine Dia outlets.

Carrefour             The French supermarket concern has also
                      expanded its network of petrol stations
                      having acquired 17 service stations from
                      TotalFinaElf. The oil giant needed to
                      dispose of the stations in order to
                      comply with competition regulations.
                      Carrefour also sells grocery products at
                      supermarket prices at its petrol stations.

Brake Bros            Catering firm Brake Bros has acquired the
                      catering wholesale business of Roach Foods.

Roach Foods           As part of the deal above between Brake Bros
                      and Roach Foods, Roach has acquired the
                      Wicketts bacon slicing and cooked hams
                      business from Brake Bros.

MBO                   Former chairman of Northumbrian Fine Foods,
                      Philip Wilbraham, has led a management buyout
                      of the firm, six weeks after it went into
                      receivership. The purchase includes biscuit
                      and cake manufacturing operations.

Dumeco                A giant meat processing firm has been
                      created in the Netherlands following
                      Dumeco's takeover of compatriot firm
                      Meatpoint's SturkoMeat fresh meat operations.
                      The takeover will give Dumeco a turnover of
                      around 1bn [pounds sterling] (1.59bn
                      [European Dollar]).

Petra Foods           Indonesian confectionery firms Petra Foods
                      and Meiji Seika Kaisha are to form a 50-50
                      joint venture to produce two chocolate
                      products under the Meiji brand name.

Inter Link Foods      UK baking firm Inter Link Foods, which
                      manufactures a wide range of baked goods, has
                      acquired compatriot firm Nicholas & Harris in
                      a 3.75m [pounds sterling] (5m [European
                      Dollar]) cash deal. The deal will increase
                      Inter Link's access to specialised moulding
                      skills used at Nicholas & Harris, which is a
                      specialist cake producer. Last year, Nicholas
                      & Harris turned over 7.8m [pounds sterling]
                      and ended up with pre-tax profits of 700 000
                      [pounds sterling].

ConAgra               ConAgra has said that it has acquired
                      prepared frozen food and corn-dog
                      manufacturer Artel and its affiliates Del
                      Maestro Foods and Pablo & Pepe.

Maple Leaf Foods      Maple Leaf Foods of Canada has reached an
                      agreement with Schneider to acquire
                      Schneider's fresh pork operations in Manitoba
                      for US$44m (49m [European Dollar]).