Private equity firm PAI Partners has announced its acquisitions of Addo Food Group and Winterbotham Darby to create a ‘leading UK chilled food platform’.
Winterbotham Darby supplies chilled foods to UK retailers and the foodservice sector through its portfolio of brands and own-label operations. Equistone Partners Europe will sell its majority shareholding in the business for an undisclosed sum.
Addo is a UK producer of chilled savoury pastry. LDC, the private equity arm of Lloyds Banking Group, is divesting the company to PAI Partners, while it will also exit its minority shareholding in Winterbotham.
By bringing the two businesses together under one platform, PAI Partners says that both management teams will benefit from the sharing of best practices, new product development and supply chain initiatives.
The companies will remain operationally independent and the current management teams, led by Addo CEO Deborah Bolton and Steven Higginson, CEO of Winterbotham, will remain in place.
“We are delighted to be investing in these two leading UK chilled food businesses and very excited to start working with the existing management teams to continue to grow their businesses and support them in doing what they do best – delivering innovative, high-quality products to consumers,” said Colm O’Sullivan, partner at PAI Partners.
Paul Monk, executive chairman of the newly formed platform, added: “By bringing Addo and Winterbotham Darby together, there is a genuine opportunity to create the best added value chilled foods company in the UK.
“That is certainly our ambition and I am delighted to have the support of PAI Partners in pursuing this objective.”
The financial terms of the transactions have not been disclosed and their completion is subject to regulatory approvals.
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