Patak's Foods To Develop Global Potential Of The Patak's Brand With Associated British Foods The shareholders of Patak's Foods Limited have reached agreement with Associated British Foods plc to develop the potential of the Patak's brand globally. Under the agreement, ABF acquire the Patak's business worldwide excluding India and Kirit Pathak (pictured above), becomes Chairman of a dedicated world foods business to be established within ABF to embrace both its existing G Costa business and Patak's. This will bring together a number of leading ethnic brands including Patak's, Blue Dragon and Rajah in a single organisation. Meena Pathak will also hold a board seat in this enlarged world food focussed business. The family whose firm supplies curry to 75 per cent of Britain's Indian restaurants sold the company recently in a deal worth an estimated £200million. The decision to identify a potential strategic partner was taken after a detailed strategic review of the Company assisted by Rothschild. This review led the shareholders to conclude that the support of a larger partner would significantly accelerate the capacity of the company to achieve its strategic mission of becoming the world's leading supplier of authentic Indian food. After detailed discussions with a number of potential strategic industry partners, the shareholders selected ABF as the optimal potential partner to further its strategic aims, having regard to the uniquely complementary capabilities of the two businesses and the strong cultural fit between the two organisations. Through this partnership, the Patak's brand will benefit from all of the infrastructure, capabilities and resources of ABF. These include ABF's strong grocery distribution platforms in many of the key markets for Patak's, its established experience in the world foods sector brought through its Westmill and G Costa businesses and its long experience in the bakery sector in the UK and Australia. Accordingly, ABF has the capability to add value in many different and exciting ways to the Patak's business. Under the agreement, there is to be an initial consideration paid on completion and a further deferred element dependent on the future performance of the business as part of ABF. The Patak's brand and businesses in India will remain wholly owned by the Pathak family. The Pathak family believes there is a significant opportunity for establishing Patak's as the leading Indian food brand focussing on the fast growing Indian modern trade by extending the full range of Patak's branded products to the Indian market. This should be highly complementary with the future of the Patak's brand operating outside India through ABF. ABF is a diversified international food, ingredients and retail group with sales of £6.0 billion and over 75,000 employees in 46 countries. The Grocery division, one of the four key segments of the group, encompasses a number of major manufacturers of branded and private label products. These include hot beverages; sugars & sweeteners; vegetable oils; bread & baked goods; ethnic foods; herbs & spices; meat & dairy. ABF is currently represented in ethnic foods through the Blue Dragon Chinese food brand and Rajah, an Indian food brand. Commenting on the agreement Kirit Pathak, Chairman and Chief Executive of the Company said:"With its experience in the world foods sector and international scale of operations, ABF is the ideal strategic partner for the Patak's brand outside of India. Moreover, this partnership will reinforce the leadership position of the Patak's brand in Indian food worldwide and significantly enhance the capacity of Patak's to realise its full global potential as the reference Indian food brand". top