Price paid by Harts for Hansells Food Group revealed

Thursday, 30 August 2018

The price paid for the Hansells Food Group by New Zealand's richest family - the Harts - has been revealed thanks to Companies Office rules that require overseas owners of companies to provide annual accounts.

The Hansells brands, including Aunty Betty's, Weight Watchers, and Vitafresh, may be Kiwi household names but they have been majority owned for some years by Varapong Supachok of Thailand, with minority shareholdings held by two other companies..

Supachok sold the Hansells assets to Graeme Hart and his son Harry for $15 million, with the deal settled about a month ago.

The Harts set up a new company called Walter & Wild to hold the assets, plus they also bought Hubbards and Gregg's Sauces for an unknown price.

The production line at Hansells Masterton - a 25 per cent stake in this separate company was also part of the Harts' purchase.

* Hansells the very essence of a Kiwi family firm**

Harry Hart is the director of Walter & Wild but ultimate ownership is shared with his father.

The accounts of Hansells Food Group show that it ran at a loss in recent years.

It had turnover of $96m in the year ending March 2018, less than the $103m a year earlier, and made a gross profit of $21.8m compared with $23m last year.

But it also incurred significant costs including $5m for freight, $125m for marketing, $17.9m for administration, finance costs of $3.3m, tax of $5.4m, plus smaller items, taking the bottom loss to $19.4m.

Accumulated losses came to $66m.