Pork Farms and Wall’s supplier Addo Food Group has been sold in a deal backed by private equity firm LDC.
LDC says it will invest in product innovation, expansion into new markets through organic growth, and potential acquisitions in adjacent markets.
The secondary buyout deal – details of which have not been disclosed – marks the exit of Vision Capital, which bought the business from Northern Foods in 2007. Private investment fund Fullbrook Thorpe Investments has invested alongside LDC.
Addo traded as Pork Farms Group until 2015, when it changed its name to Addo Food Group. In 2014 it acquired Kerry Foods’ £100m chilled savoury pastry operations.
Based in Nottingham, Addo produces more than 287 million packs of chilled savoury pastry products a year. It employs more than 2,500 people and operates six UK sites in Nottingham, Market Drayton, Spalding, Poole and Shaftesbury.
Its branded products include Tottle pork pies, Wall’s savoury pastry and Pork Farms pork pies, and the recently launched Too Good to Be range of gluten-free sweet and savoury pastry products.
Addo also manufactures own-label products, including sausage rolls, hot pies, slices, pork pies, Scotch eggs and quiches, which it supplies to food retailers, including major supermarkets.
Addo will continue to be led by its existing management team, headed up by group managing director Chris Peters, who said: “We are very excited about our partnership with LDC, to help us further unlock the potential we see in the market.”
Paul Monk, currently a non-executive chairman at Seabrook Crisps, which is also part of the LDC portfolio, will join Addo as non-executive chairman. Monk has previous experience with Mars, Golden Wonder, Finsbury Foods, Quorn and Burton’s Biscuit Co.
Also joining as non-exec directors are LDC new business head Andy Grove and LDC investment director Victoria Marcer.
News of the deal comes two days after LDC announced it had backed a management buyout of Manchester-based Hill Biscuits.
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