Big Bear's plan for a monster puff on Aim list

THE firm behind the Honey Monster's Sugar Puffs yesterday confirmed it is going for gold with plans to list on the stock market.

It is expected the move could value Big Bear, which also owns Fox's Glacier mints and Poppets chocolates, at over 75 million.

Big Bear said the move would help it take on and develop more "interesting but forgotten" brands.

The firm, which now plans to list on the Alternative Investment Market, was formed in 2003 when it acquired brands from Northern Foods. It specialises in revitalising underperforming "heritage" food brands and last year had sales of 53.3m and operating profits before exceptional items of 8.1m.

Co-founder and joint chairman John Jackson said: "We are very excited about bringing our portfolio of instantly recognisable food brands to the market as we continue to extend and develop them.

"We believe the flotation will increase our flexibility to access capital markets, raise our profile and enable us to acquire further interesting but forgotten and under-utilised brands as attractive opportunities are identified."

Big Bear acquired the business assets of Honey Monster Foods from PepsiCo International in 2006. The deal brought Honey Monster, Sugar Puffs and Harvest Cheweee cereal bars into its brand portfolio.