Northern Foods cooks up merger with Greencore

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The all-share deal marks the end of a turbulent decade for Northern, which supplies ready meals to all the main supermarkets but has shrunk in size and value as it regularly missed profit targets.

The new company will keep its headquarters in Dublin — where Greencore pays 17% tax against Northern's 27% — and its main listing in London.

It will have combined sales of £1.7 billion a year and a 15% share of the chilled foods market in the UK. In some areas, like sandwiches and ready meals, that market share approaches 30%.

Patrick Coveney, chief executive of Greencore, takes on the same role at Essenta while Northern's chief executive Stefan Barden is expected to step down once the merger is completed.

Coveney said: "Northern Foods was the company which created the chilled foods market in the 1990s and early 2000s. Since then other people have caught up with them, including us. Now together we will drive the businesses hard going forward."

Shares in Greencore and Northern rose 29% and 24% following the announcement.