PREMIUM BRANDS HOLDINGS CORPORATION ANNOUNCES STRATEGIC TRANSACTIONS

VANCOUVER, BC, Dec. 30, 2024 /CNW/ - December 30, 2024.  Premium Brands Holdings Corporation (TSX: PBH), a leading producer, marketer and distributor of branded specialty food products, announced today that it has completed the following strategic transactions:

• The acquisition of NSP Quality Meats (NSP), a cooked protein and deli meats manufacturer with plants located in Oklahoma, Texas and Missouri
• The acquisition of Casa Di Bertacchi (Casa), a manufacturer of branded and private label cooked protein products with a plant in New Jersey
• The acquisition of Italia Salami (Italia), a manufacturer of authentic dry cured Italian salami with a plant in Ontario
• The sale and leaseback of the Company's recently expanded Hempler's deli meats production facility in Washington resulting in gross proceeds of approximately US$68.0 million

The total purchase price for the NSP, Casa and Italia businesses, which have combined annual sales of approximately US$200 million, was US$66.0 million consisting of US$50.0 million in cash, US$10.0 million in the Company's common shares and contingent consideration of US$6.0 million. All three transactions are expected to be accretive to the Company's 2025 earnings per share.

"We are very pleased to welcome NSP, Casa and Italia into our ecosystem and to be partnering with the management teams of these well-known and long-established businesses," said Mr. George Paleologou, President and CEO of Premium Brands.

"NSP and Casa will play major roles in supporting the continued growth of our market-leading branded cooked protein initiatives in the U.S. by providing much needed capacity and improving our access to additional key U.S. markets.  In addition, these businesses will significantly enhance our Specialty Foods Group's ability to largely mitigate any potential border and tariff related risks.

"Italia is a smaller acquisition but provides our Concord business with much needed local production capacity to help support their very successful Marcangelo branded Italian charcuterie offerings," added Mr. Paleologou.

ABOUT PREMIUM BRANDS

Premium Brands owns a broad range of leading specialty food manufacturing and differentiated food distribution businesses with operations across Canada and the United States.

www.premiumbrandsholdings.com

Forward Looking Statements

This press release contains forward looking statements with respect to the Company, including, without limitation, statements regarding its business operations, strategy and financial performance and condition, cash distributions, proposed acquisitions, budgets, projected costs and plans and objectives of or involving the Company. While management believes that the expectations reflected in such forward looking statements are reasonable and represent the Company's internal expectations and belief as of December 30, 2024, there can be no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct as such forward looking statements involve unknown risks and uncertainties beyond the Company's control which may cause its actual performance and results in future periods to differ materially from any estimates or projections of future performance or results expressed or implied by such forward looking statements. 

Forward looking statements generally can be identified by the use of the words "may", "could", "should", "would", "will", "expect", "intend", "plan", "estimate", "project", "anticipate", "believe" or "continue", or the negative thereof or similar variations. Forward looking statements in this press release include statements with respect to the Company's expectation that the transactions will be accretive to the Company's 2025 earnings per share and will mitigate any potential border and tariff related risks.

Some of the factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the Company's expectations are referenced in the Risks and Uncertainties section in the Company's MD&A for the 13 and 39 Weeks ended September 28, 2024.

Assumptions used by the Company to develop forward looking statements contained or incorporated by reference in this press release are based on information currently available to it and include those outlined below as well as those outlined elsewhere in this document. Readers are cautioned that this information is not exhaustive.

SOURCE Premium Brands Holdings Corporation

For further information, please contact George Paleologou, President and CEO or Will Kalutycz, CFO at [phone].