Mayfair gobbles up gluten-free bakery firm

THE trend for health-conscious consumers to ditch gluten from their diets has led Britain’s newest private equity firm, Mayfair, to gobble up Promise Gluten Free in a deal valuing the bakery group at around €100m (£89m).

The bread company, based in Donegal, was started by Declan Gallagher in 2011 after almost four decades of running his family’s bakery business.

After working on a range of breads suitable for celiacs, Promise now ships loaves to more than 1,000 stores in Australia and 10,000 outlets in the US and Canada, as well as being stocked in the UK after being awarded contracts with Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Marks & Spencer. Promise is understood to have sold a majority stake in the business to Mayfair Equity Partners, which was launched two years ago by three partners who quit Lloyds’ private equity arm, LDC.

“Mayfair’s backing will provide us with the ability to increase capacity in new and existing markets, including supporting the growth of our facility,” said Mr Gallagher.