Dairies for £49 million in April 2013. It thus acquired control of the licenses for producing Cadbury, Del Monte and Britvic branded ice cream. In August 2012, the company acquired Eskigel (for £60.5 million), an Italian ice cream manufacturer whose factory is located in Terni (Umbria), about 65 miles north of Rome. In April 2013, R&R was acquired by the French private equity firm PAI Partners for £715 million. As a result, James Lambert moved from the chief executive role to chairman. In October 2013, R&R's founder was named entrepreneur of the year at EY's annual awards hosted by Jeremy Vine. Lambert will now go on to compete globally with more than 60 other country winners at the EY World Entrepreneur Of The Year awards in Monte Carlo next year. In 2016, Nestlé and PAI Partners agreed to set up a joint venture known as Froneri which combined the two companies' ice cream activities throughout Europe and other international countries. On 11 December 2019, Froneri announced that it will expand into the North American market with the acquisition of Nestle USA's and Nestle Canada's ice cream division for $4 billion USD which includes brands such as Dreyer's, Häagen-Dazs and Drumstick. The acquisition completed in Q1 2020. UK operations The company manufactures over 600 million ice lollies every year, produces and packages over 70% of 2-litre supermarket own-brand ice cream, including for major UK supermarkets such as Tesco and Asda, and employs around 665 people at its Leeming Bar plant. The Bodmin site employs 30 people. References External links Kraft Foods deal 1985 establishments in the United Kingdom Food and drink companies established in 1985 Dairy products companies of the United Kingdom Companies based in Hambleton District Multinational dairy companies Private equity portfolio companies Nestlé PAI Partners companies Joint ventures