{"id":863714,"date":"2026-06-17T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=863714"},"modified":"2026-06-17T09:59:17","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T07:59:17","slug":"end-of-an-era-for-202-year-old-giant-in-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/863714\/end-of-an-era-for-202-year-old-giant-in-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"End of an era for 202-year-old giant in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Premier Group has acquired RFG Holdings Limited in a deal worth R6.5 billion, with the deal adding a host of new brands and ending a period of stock illiquidity for the group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Premier, which was founded in 1824, completed the acquisition of RFG in March 2026. The value of the deal was R6.5 billion. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Premier share price increased 12% from the reference price of R154.00 per share at announcement to R172.78 at implementation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The consideration was primarily settled by the issuance of new Premier shares on a 7:1 basis. Anchor Capital<\/a> said that the deal made financial sense, given the previous limited liquidity in Premier shares. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The acquisition also added a broad, complementary collection of leading brands to Premier’s stable, bringing 53 iconic brands into its portfolio.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Premier\u2019s existing brands include Snowflake, Blue Ribbon, Impala and Iwisa. RFG added Rhodes Quality, Bull Brand, Pakco, Magpie, Hinds Spices, and many more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In its financial results for the year ended 31 March 2026, the group also completed the commissioning of the Aeroton bakery during the second half of the year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This new bakery is expected to meaningfully contribute to economies of scale and introduce further efficiencies into the bread manufacturing and distribution process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With volumes steadily ramping up since March 2026, old bakeries will be decommissioned, and bread availability will be improved in key inland markets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The group’s revenue increased by 6.6% to R21.2 billion, primarily driven by 5.1% revenue growth in the Millbake division, comprising 81% of revenue<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Revenue in the Groceries and International division also increased by 13.5%, boosted by the
contribution of RFG’s financial results from 11 March 2026. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The group’s operating profit rose by 23.2% to R2.4 billion, and the operating profit margin improved by 150 basis points to 11.1%.

Its earnings per share also rose by 27.4% to 1,192 cents and headline earnings per share by 27.7% to 1,204 cents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The inclusion of RFG’s results from the effective date had no effect on EPS, and the net effect was an increase of 3 cents in HEPS.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The group also declared a final gross dividend of 182 cents per share, bringing the total dividend to 341 cents per share. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Metric<\/strong><\/td>Current Value<\/strong><\/td>% Increase<\/strong><\/td><\/tr><\/thead>
Revenue<\/strong><\/td>R21.2 billion<\/td>6.6%<\/td><\/tr>
EBITDA<\/strong><\/td>R2.8 billion<\/td>18.2%<\/td><\/tr>
Operating Profit<\/strong><\/td>R2.4 billion<\/td>23.2%<\/td><\/tr>
Earnings Per Share (EPS)<\/strong><\/td>1,192 cents<\/td>27.4%<\/td><\/tr>
Headline Earnings Per Share (HEPS)<\/strong><\/td>1,204 cents<\/td>27.7%<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Outlook <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Looking ahead, the group said that the primary focus of FY2026 will be completing the “RFG integration and unlocking the merger synergies.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the EBITDA level, the Groceries division, which now houses the Culinary business, is expected to account for around one-third of the business, with Millbake accounting for the remaining two-thirds. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The group added that the post-acquisition integration is well underway and that it remains confident of delivering the expected cost savings and synergies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Consolidation of key suppliers, cost reductions from increased scale and integration of operational and support functions are expected to be materially completed by the end of FY2027,” it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the group warned that the increase in fuel, packaging and other fuel-related input costs is likely to necessitate price increases across the portfolio of around 5%. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the deflationary global soft commodity price cycle appears to have bottomed out, it warned that the forecasted Super El Ni\u00f1o is expected to negatively impact grain supply and prices. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ongoing tariff uncertainty is expected to hurt international sales for its Culinary division. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, it said the current 10% to 12.5% US Tariff rate is better than the previous 30% rate and creates a more favourable trading environment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The integration of RFG into Premier is progressing following a R6.5 billion, funded by the issuance of new Premier shares. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":863730,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[23825,23826],"class_list":["post-863714","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-premier","tag-rfg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/863714","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/95"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=863714"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/863714\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":863733,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/863714\/revisions\/863733"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/863730"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=863714"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=863714"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=863714"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}