NBGI Private Equity has backed a GBP23.5m management buy-in of the cake division of McCambridge Group Holdings, one of the largest producers of private label cakes for the UK food industry.
The business, which operates from four primary manufacturing locations in the UK and a further facility in Poland, will be renamed post completion, and aims to act as a platform to grow into the pre-eminent supplier of private label and branded cakes to the UK retail and foodservice sectors. Existing customers include the UK’s major supermarket chains.
NBGIPE is backing Andrew Johnson as McCambridge’s cake division’s new chief executive. He has extensive experience in growing businesses supplying private label foodstuffs into supermarket multiples in the UK. In particular, Johnson was chief executive in a successful buy-in into Elisabeth the Chef in 2004, a private equity-backed supplier of chilled private label cakes to UK supermarkets, growing sales from GBP45m to GBP70m during his three-year tenure.
Richard Babington, investor director of NBGIPE who directly sourced and led the transaction, says: “We are delighted to be backing Andrew in his second MBI into the food sector after a long search, working closely with him, to identify the right buy-in opportunity for his skills. He has a highly successful track record in growing private label businesses supplying the UK supermarket multiples, which I am confident will be extended with this investment. The buyout of McCambridge’s cake division is consistent with the acquisition strategy underpinning NBGIPE’s four other previous MBIs into the UK food sector, namely the purchase of a cash-generative, asset-heavy business with scope to grow and at a competitive purchase multiple.”
