The Hilton Food Group announced on Friday that it had acquired the entire share capital of Fairfax Meadow Europe Limited, a leading meat supplier to the UK foodservice sector, from Argent Holdings in a deal worth £23.8m.
Fairfax Meadow was established over 40 years ago and supplies some of the largest businesses in the hospitality and travel sectors. The company operates from four meat processing and packing facilities in Derby, Milton Keynes, North London and Southampton. It is said to be recovering well from the impact of the pandemic when demand was hit by the restrictions in the hospitality and travel sectors.
The acquisition of Fairfax Meadow is expected to enable Hilton to improve its access to the out-of-home channel and become the “protein partner of choice for customers across more mealtimes and meal occasions”.
The business that Hilton has acquired generated an EBITDA loss of £2.3m in the year ended 31 December 2020, after adjusting for exceptional items and reflecting the impact of Covid. However, it generated a profit of £4.4m the year before.
“This transaction is all about growth,” said Hilton’s CEO, Philip Heffer.
“With its award-winning reputation, Fairfax Meadow represents a great opportunity for Hilton to expand into an adjacent and growing foodservice sector in the UK. It is another step towards our goal of becoming the protein partner of choice for every meal occasion – offering high quality, affordable, and rigorously sourced proteins for customers and consumers here in the UK and across the world.
“We look forward to leveraging Hilton’s expertise, reputation and investment to grow and expand the Fairfax business, and we plan to offer Hilton’s broad product range, including sous vide, seafood and alternative protein products, to Fairfax’s customers.”
Fairfax Meadow Managing Director, Penny Tomlinson, added: “Fairfax Meadow is built on a foundation of longstanding, strong, customer and supplier relationships which we will continue to develop as we move forward together. Philip and the team at Hilton have followed our progress closely over the past few years and by joining forces now, we will have the right platform and investment for the next phase of Fairfax Meadow’s growth.”
