Mercer Group plans to buy Hastings-based Haden & Custance for $2.25 million as the unprofitable stainless steel fabricator transitions to a food processing and packaging business.

The Christchurch-based company entered into a conditional deal to buy H&C's shares, which will add a robotics system used to prepare bulk products such as cheese and butter for processing, and offices in Melbourne and Wisconsin, US, it said in a statement. The deal would be funded through a placement of new shares or debt.

Mercer is currently raising $7 million through an underwritten rights issue, though chief executive Richard Rookes says the acquisition would need new funding.

The company wants to reposition the steel business's focus to food processing and packaging technology, giving it exposure to higher-value export business.

"H&C fits very very well into that stated strategy," Rookes told BusinessDesk.  Continue to full article