Menu Fresh Limited has completed the acquisition of IDC, after the latter went into financial difficulty and hired business advisory firm ReSolve to assist with an accelerated merger and acquisition process to secure a sale of the business.
Menu Fresh Limited is already majority-owned by Christopher Edwards, the chief executive of IDC, and statement confirmed the transfer of all 99 IDC employees to the new company.
Also trading as Dropshipment UK, the firm works with Bestway, Booker, McColl’s, Appleby Westward, Bobby’s, Eden Farm, Robert’s, Expresso Plus, Homeware Essentials and Williams of Swansea.
Read more: Wholesalers face disruption to drop shipments following IDC collapse
IDC has been trading for almost three decades and the decision took the decision before the Covid-19 pandemic to invest significantly in its bespoke distribution platform and to re-model the business such that they provided not only a drop-shipping service, but physical deliveries to clients.
The pandemic and resulting national lockdowns curtailed trade in the hospitality and educational sectors, and along with global supply chain issues and rampant cost inflation this affected profit margins and caused a continued fall in revenues.
Mark Supperstone, joint administrator and managing partner at ReSolve, commented: “IDC is an innovative, high-quality business that in recent years was impacted by several factors outside of its control. I’m thrilled that we have secured this sale which saves 99 jobs and enables the business to continue to provide excellent service to customers across the UK.’’
Christopher Edwards, director at Menu Fresh, commented: I’d sincerely like to thank the whole team at ReSolve for helping us to secure the future of our business. Like many other businesses across the UK, the last few years have posed a number of challenges that none of us could have foreseen. I’m delighted that we are now in a position to move forward with optimism about the future and continue with our mission to help companies of all sizes source high-quality food at competitive prices.’’
