In a bid to turn around the company, Aryzta, owner of Cuisine de France, is to sell its Cloverhill facilities for an undisclosed sum. This is consistent with the group selling off non-core assets.

Aryzta bought Cloverhill in 2014 for around €400m but it understood to be receiving considerably less than €100m for the business. The business had been loss-making.

At the same time it purchased Cloverhill, it also bought Pineridge Bakery for an additional €340m. The idea at the time was that these acquisitions would significantly enlarge Aryzta’s footprint in North America. Once these two businesses,which cost more than $1bn, were fully integrated, Aryzta would gain synergies of close to $100m through operations. However, progress has been slow.

Last September, Aryzta reported that there was an immigration crackdown at the Chicago bakery which resulted in a loss of 800 workers, about one-third of the workforce at the facility, hurting production and sales.

Investors reacted positively to the Cloverhill sale, with shares up around 3% yesterday on the news. Shareholders now wait to see if the company’s 49% stake in Picard will be sold. Earlier this year, Aryzta took a €860m write-down on its assets, which mainly concerned Cloverhill.

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