James Crean, whose sole remaining interests are its American frozen meals and canned poultry operations, is considering a possible sale of these interests and distributing the resulting cash to shareholders.
Crean said that it has already received a number of approaches on a possible joint venture or sale of its Freezer Queen frozen meals operation. If Freezer Queen is sold, it would leave Crean with only its Valley Fresh canned poultry business and analysts said that would be insufficient to sustain Crean as a public company.
But in a statement with its interim results, Crean made it clear that a wind-up and cash distribution to shareholders is not the only option being considered. Another option is "taking the financial and strategic steps to put Crean's food business on an aggressive development course going forward", although analysts said it would be difficult for Crean to justify any heavy expenditure in the American businesses.
Crean has already sold its 28 per cent stake in United Beverages, its British electrical business and spun off its print and packaging operations into the separately listed Oakhill Group. The most likely strategy, according to market sources, is for Crean to sell off the remaining business, pay off its €46 million (£36.2 million) debt and distribute any remaining cash to its long-suffering shareholders.
The interim results from Crean are largely academic as they include contributions for businesses that have already been sold off. But they do show the difficulties that the American frozen food and canned poultry business are encountering.
While the poultry business is doing reasonably well with sales last year up over 8 per cent to $98.5 million and pre-tax profits up 37 per cent to $11.4 million, these profits are still lower than 1996 when they peaked at $13.7 million.
But that positive operating performance in poultry contrasts with a dismal outcome in frozen meals, where the sales decline which began in 1995 continued with a a 11 per cent fall in sales last year to $70.1 million.
