The Kitwave Wholesale Group has acquired Creed Foodservice for an initial fee of £60m, with up to a further £10m payable over two years dependent on certain performance targets being achieved.
The move will see Creed take on the principal role within Kitwave’s Foodservice division, and there will be no changes to the Creed depot, operational, sales, head office teams, management team and Board. Chris Creed will remain in the position of chief executive, with Philip de Ternant continuing as chairman and will be responsible for the strategic overview and integration into the foodservice division. Miles Roberts will continue to be managing director, running the day-to-day with his current directors.
With this addition, Kitwave’s Foodservice division will see depot numbers increase to 10 (16 including the on-trade business), with a total customer base of 10,700 across education, healthcare, leisure, hospitality, business and industry, and out-of-home sectors, with its annual revenues approaching £275m.
Read more: Kitwave foodservice division joins Country Range Group
Speaking to Better Wholesaling earlier in the year, Kitwave chief executive Ben Maxted confirmed the company’s M&A strategy: “The board believes there remain a large number of opportunities available to us in what is a fragmented delivered wholesale market in the UK. Our next M&A target is not necessarily geographically based; the decision will be based on several factors including product offering and what fits our culture. Our focus will also be on independent foodservice, we’re not trying to scale into a national business to take on large contracts. Our niche is small drops, service-led quality that lends itself to smaller foodservice players, it doesn’t matter if we don’t have an outpost in a certain region because we’re not chasing national contracts.”
Chris Creed said: “We have been evaluating our plans to take our business to the next stage for some time now and are delighted to be able to share our growth plans. Our objectives have always been to keep the Creed name, remain a member of the Country Range Group, secure the right investment and strengthen our infrastructure and capacity to secure our long-term growth; and I’m pleased to say that all these goals have been achieved.
Read more: Kitwave profits fall slightly as group pursues further acquisitions
Maxted added: “Creed has an exceptional heritage and is one of the UK’s leading foodservice wholesalers, so we are delighted to have reached this agreement, which will extend our foodservice division. Strategically, Creed will significantly expand our geographical presence, bridging our operations in the north and south and creating a fully integrated national delivery network. We are looking forward to working with Creed’s dedicated and experienced team and excited to see our Foodservice division continue to go from strength to strength.”
