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Alantra advised LDC on the secondary buy-out of Addo Food Group (Addo) the UK’s leading chilled savoury pastry producer, from Vision Capital


SECTORFood & Beverage

ServiceM&A

Apr 2017
Buy-side advisory

Alantra has advised LDC and the management team on the secondary buy-out of Addo Food Group (Addo) the UK’s leading chilled savoury pastry producer, from Vision Capital.Details of the transaction are not disclosed.

Headquartered in Nottingham, Addo produces more than 287 million packs of chilled savoury pastry products every year. The business manufactures a range of own brand and branded products including sausage rolls, hot pies, slices, pork pies, scotch egg products and quiches, which it supplies to the UK’s leading names in food retail including all the major supermarkets.Alongside its market-leading ranges of premium pastry products such as Tottle pork pies, Walls savoury pastry and Pork Farms pork pies, the business launched its ‘Too Good to Be’ range of gluten-free sweet and savoury pastry products last year – the first of its kind.

With a trading history that dates back more than 160 years, Addo employs more than 2,500 people and operates across six UK sites in Nottingham, Market Drayton, Spalding, Poole and Shaftesbury. The business was acquired by Vision Capital from Northern Foods in 2007 and traded as Pork Farms Group until 2015 when it changed its name to Addo Food Group.In 2014, the company completed the acquisition of Kerry Food’s £100m chilled savoury pastry operations.

LDC has invested to support Addo’s growth strategy, which will include further investment in product innovation, expansion into new markets through organic growth and potential acquisitions in adjacent markets. Private investment fund Fullbrook Thorpe Investments LLP, which is backed by Andy Leaver (former majority owner of Clinigen Group), invested alongside LDC. Addo will continue to be led by its existing management team, headed up by Group Managing Director, Chris Peters. Both Andy Grove and Victoria Marcer (LDC) will join the Addo board as non-executive directors.Paul Monk will also join Addo as non-executive chairman.

Other advisers included Eversheds in Nottingham which acted as legal Alantra advised LDC, while Deloitte in Birmingham provided tax advice. Browne Jacobson in Nottingham acted as legal advisors to management. Commercial due diligence was completed by Food Strategy Associates and operational due diligence by Lauras. Vision Capital were advised on the transaction by Houlihan Lokey, KPMG and Macfarlanes.

The business has been supported with new debt facilities provided by Guggenheim with existing working capital facilities rolled forward by PNC.

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