> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.businessbagel.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # A South African company supplying restaurant kitchens globally made R242 billion in sales last year - URL: https://www.businessbagel.com/bidcorp-fy2026-cash-generation-five-acquisitions/ - Published: 2026-08-27T03:45:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-08-27T03:44:59.000Z - Description: The food distributor turned R242.2 billion of sales into R18.6 billion of cash after working capital, lifted the dividend, and bought back shares while its own price was weak. - Author: Christian Maidman - Tags: Companies, Business Bagel News Cash, not profit, is the number that tells you whether a food distributor is being run well. Bid Corporation, the international foodservice group out of the Bidvest stable, sells fresh and frozen food to restaurants, hotels and caterers in more than 35 countries. For the year to June it generated R18.6 billion of cash after paying for working capital, up 17.7%, against trading profit of R13.8 billion. The gap between those two is the point. A distributor buys stock, sells it and then waits to be paid, so cash can lag profit badly if any part of that cycle slips. Bidcorp converted 118% of its operating earnings into cash, meaning it collected more during the year than the year's trading actually threw off. For every R100 of food it sold, about R6.50 was left before interest, tax and the cost of wearing out its trucks. ## The five businesses it bought, and what they added Bidcorp has a reputation as a serial acquirer and it did nothing to shake it. Five bolt-ons closed during the year: Hodgson & Sailbrand, a seafood wholesaler in the north-east of England; Gruppo Alimentare Sardo in Sardinia; Chuan Yee in Kuala Lumpur; Fridge Foods in the Eastern and Western Cape; and Baltimer, a fish processor in Poland. Together they added R2.7 billion of revenue and R142 million of trading profit. On a base of R242.2 billion of sales, that is close to one percent. Buying is what keeps the model efficient rather than what makes the group big. Bidcorp takes over a local distributor, leaves the people running it in place, and moves compliance, finance, IT and human resources up to the group, which is how profit ends up growing faster than sales. ## Where the growth is supposed to come from now The next phase is meant to look different. Bidcorp says it will concentrate on organic growth in the markets it already occupies, selling a wider range to customers it already has, while staying open to bolt-ons on that ground. It goes into that off a year in which revenue rose 5.0% once the rand's swings are taken out, and trading profit rose 8.2% on the same basis. Shareholders get the rest. Headline earnings came in at 2 701.4 cents a share, up 6.8%, and the full-year dividend rises to 1 240 cents, with 625 cents of that as the final payment. The group also spent money on its own shares. It bought back 2.6 million of them at an average of R409.35 while the price was weak, and says the benefit of that shows up in the 2027 results. Trading was not even across the group. Europe and the UK carried the trading profit while Australasia and emerging markets grew more slowly, and Bidcorp says rivals are chasing volume hard in slow-growth markets. The buying habit has not gone anywhere either. Two more deals were struck after year-end, a small UK bolt-on and the Fijian and Pacific Islands export business of T&G Global, which was due to complete at the end of August.