Wholesale giant buys up food supplier in £21m deal
TYNESIDE firm Kitwave has continued moves to consolidate the UK wholesale market with a £21m deal for another company in the North.
The North Shields-based business has announced a deal to buy Total Foodservice Solutions, which is based in Huddersfield, Yorkshire, with another depot in Clitheroe, Lancashire. The deal will be paid in cash and funded from Kitwave’s current banking facilities.
Total Foodservice has a history dating back more than 130 years and supplies customers around the North that include pubs, restaurants, cafes, schools and universities, and companies in the care sector. Its most recent results showed a turnover of £25.4m and profit before tax of £2m. Its acquired balance sheet includes £4m of cash and property worth £2.1m.
Kitwave said the company’s operations would be incorporated into its existing foodservice division, which includes a number of other companies it has acquired in recent years, including David Miller Frozen Foods Limited, MJ Baker Foodservice Limited, Westcountry Food Holdings
Limited and HB Clark & Co (Successors) Limited.
Ben Maxted, Kitwave’s chief executive officer, said: “We are delighted to announce the acquisition of Total Foodservice, which is a one-stop shop for wholesale commercial catering supplies and enables us to further expand our product range offering across the North of England and in particular Yorkshire and the North West, complementing our existing foodservice offering.
“Total Foodservice is a well-established business in the catering industry and we look forward to welcoming its team to Kitwave and integrating the business into our Foodservice division.
“This acquisition is in line with
Kitwave’s growth strategy, and we will continue to seek to identify further opportunities in the UK’s highly fragmented wholesale market to deliver further value to the group and its shareholders.”
Kitwave was formed with a single confectionery cash-and-carry based in North Shields in 1998 but has grown significantly over the last 13 years through a series of acquisitions.
The firm listed on the London Stock Exchange in 2021 and last month released results showing turnover of more than £600m and operating profit of £29.3m.
The company’s founder Paul Young is set to step down this month, to be replaced by Mr Maxted.
We will continue to seek to identify further opportunities Ben Maxted, CEO