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# The company behind your bread is booming, but its biggest deal could still come undone
- URL: https://www.businessbagel.com/company-behind-your-bread-booming-deal-could-come-undone/
- Published: 2026-11-12T03:30:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-11-12T03:30:00.000Z
- Description: Premier's profits soared after its R6.5 billion takeover of RFG, but the Competition Commission wants the approval for that deal revoked.
- Author: Christian Maidman
- Tags: Companies, Business Bagel News

Imagine spending R6.5 billion buying another company, watching your profits soar, and then having the competition watchdog try to undo the deal. That's the rather awkward situation facing Premier, the food group behind Blue Ribbon bread, Snowflake, Iwisa and Impala. In the six months to September, Premier's revenue jumped 38.8% to R14.3 billion, while operating profit climbed 52.5% to R1.7 billion. But the deal behind much of that growth is still being fought over.

## What RFG did for Premier's numbers

Most of that growth came from RFG, the company behind Rhodes and Bull Brand, which Premier bought for R6.5 billion in March. This was the first half-year to include RFG, now running as Premier's Culinary business, and its inclusion was the main reason revenue rose so sharply. The rest of the business did better than its revenue suggests, too. Millbake, the division that makes up 66% of group revenue, grew revenue by just 1.3% as maize and wheat prices deflated by 20% and 5%, but its EBITDA, or earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation, rose 23.7% to R1.6 billion. Headline earnings per share rose 27.1%.

Investors are loving it. Premier's shares jumped 6.23% to R191.90 on Tuesday, their biggest one-day gain since March last year. They're up almost 20% over the past year, while rivals Tiger Brands and AVI have fallen by just over 20% and nearly 14% respectively. Chris Logan of Opportune Investments told News24 that the results strengthen Premier's claim to be one of the few growth companies on the JSE. And shoppers will feel some of it at the till: fuel is costing Premier more than R20 million extra a month, so it has pushed through price increases of about 3% to 4% across its range.

## Why the deal is on wobbly ground

But now check this out. When the Competition Commission conditionally approved the merger in March, it did so on assurances that no facilities would be closed. According to the commission, the companies repeated that assurance before the Competition Tribunal, saying they did not contemplate closing their production facilities. Yet four months after the merger, Premier told the commission it intended to close RFG's fruit cannery in Tulbagh in the Western Cape. It has since concluded voluntary separation agreements with 403 employees, at a cost of about R40 million, and agreed to pay R67 million to 82 farmers to remove peach orchards and move to other crops.

The commission believes Premier withheld those plans during the merger review, and it wants approval for the deal revoked. Premier denies this, saying the export prospects for canned fruit declined rapidly after the merger was approved, making the factory economically unviable. CEO Kobus Gertenbach says the Tulbagh and Langeberg plants were running below 50% of capacity, a level at which they couldn't compete on price with Chinese producers. Last weekend, the two sides agreed to drop an urgent hearing, but the full dispute heads to the Competition Tribunal next year.

Premier says undoing the merger is not realistic, and Anchor Capital's Sean Culverwell told News24 he sees an unwinding as a low-probability scenario. Still, until the Tribunal rules, Premier's boom is standing on a deal that isn't settled. 2027 is going to be a rollercoaster ride for the group.