Acquisition of Yellow Chips by Diamond Foods

DATE
February 2015

TRANSACTION TYPE
Corporate Acquisition

VALUE
£ Undisclosed

SECTOR
Food & Beverage

Spayne Lindsay advises Diamond Foods, Inc. (“Diamond Foods”) on its acquisition of a 51% stake in Yellow Chips.

Spayne Lindsay is delighted to announce the acquisition of a 51% stake in Yellow Chips by Diamond Foods. Spayne Lindsay acted as corporate finance advisor to Diamond Foods on the transaction.

Yellow Chips is a Netherlands based manufacturer of high quality vegetable and organic potato crisps. It manufacturers a range of private label products and also markets its products in Europe under its own premium brand, Go Pure. The business is already Diamond Foods’ chosen supplier for KETTLE^® branded vegetable crisps and this acquisition will broaden Diamond Foods’ offering in this fast-growing, on-trend category in the UK and Europe. Following the acquisition, Yellow Chips’ founders and existing management team, Vincent van Gorkom, Maarten Brouwer and Jesse Lam will continue to operate the company as an independent subsidiary.

Dominic Lowe, Managing Director of Kettle Foods Europe, commented:

“We are delighted with this highly strategic transaction. We look forward to working closely with the Yellow Chips team to expand European sales and increase distribution in the UK. Spayne Lindsay’s expertise and guidance was central to getting the structure of the transaction correct.”

Vincent van Gorkom, one of the founders of Yellow Chips and a member of its management team commented:

“We’ve been working closely with Diamond over the past several months, and we’re excited to join the team. We will benefit from Diamond’s scale, marketing expertise, and distribution network, and look forward to expanding awareness of our products and increasing market penetration in the UK and Europe.”