Private equity house Key Capital Partners (KCP) has sold food manufacturer TSC Foods to Edward Billington and Son Limited.
Scunthorpe-based TSC Foods, which was founded in 1991, produces and supplies chilled and frozen sauces, soups, entrees and dressings to the retail and food service markets.
The business developed the Glorious! soup range, which is sold in Morrisons, Asda and Sainsbury’s supermarkets, as well as the Co-op and Ocado.
The Billington Group is headquartered in Liverpool and is one of the UK’s largest family owned businesses. The group has over 150 years’ of trading experience with operations across the country.
As part of the deal, TSC will continue trading as normal with all 400 employees remaining at its North Lincolnshire base. In July 2009, KCP backed the management buyout of the business in a deal that valued the company at GBP17m. Since then the company has increased turnover by almost 50 per cent to just under GBP50m in the year to December 2013.
The sale will provide KCP with a 3.5x return on investment.
Peter Armitage, investment partner at KCP and director of TSC Foods, says: “TSC has shown impressive growth in both sales and profitability over the last few years. The management team has continued to invest in the production side of the business and developing the Glorious! brand in order to satisfy the demands of its growing customer base. Although it has been a pleasure working with a first-class management team it is the perfect time for us to be handing over to The Billington Group. We know the company will be in good hands.”
David Bondi, managing director at TSC Foods, says: “Working with KCP has been a really good experience for TSC and the management team. KCP’s support has enabled us to provide all the resources needed to grow the business through innovation, service and quality, along with developing the Glorious! brand rapidly in a challenging market. We are looking forward to working with The Billington Group which is an excellent fit for TSC in every way.”
Christian Mayo, Giles Taylor and James Murray at KPMG (Leeds) provided corporate finance advice to the company, while Sean FitzGerald and Victoria Zivkovic at Linder Myers (Manchester) provided legal advice to KCP. Will Oxley and Andrew Baldwin of Grant Thornton in Leeds provided vendor due diligence.
