Delivered grocery wholesaler Kitwave has acquired Total Foodservice Solutions in a deal worth £21m.
Established over 130 years ago, Total Foodservice delivers wholesale catering supplies with around 4,000 product lines, including chilled, frozen, ambient food, non-food, and cleaning products. Its depots are located in Clitheroe, Lancashire, and Huddersfield, Yorkshire. Its customers include the licensed trade, restaurants, coffee shops, sandwich bars, schools, universities, and the care industry across the North of England.
Total Foodservice reported turnover of £25.4m in the year 30 April 2023, with a pre-tax profit of £2.0m.
The acquisition will be incorporated into Kitwave’s existing Foodservice division, which currently comprises the operations of David Miller Frozen Foods Limited, M. J. Baker Foodservice Limited, Westcountry Food Holdings Limited and H.B. Clark & Co. (Successors) Limited.
Chief Executive Ben Maxted commented: “We are delighted to announce the acquisition of Total Foodservice, which is a one-stop shop for wholesale commercial catering supplies and enables us to further expand our product range offering across the North of England and in particular Yorkshire and the North West, complementing our existing foodservice offering.
“Total Foodservice is a well-established business in the catering industry and we look forward to welcoming its team to Kitwave and integrating the business into our Foodservice division.”
He added: “This acquisition is in line with Kitwave’s growth strategy, and we will continue to seek to identify further opportunities in the UK’s highly fragmented wholesale market to deliver further value to the group and its shareholders.”
NAM Implications:
- Despite unprecedented lockdown fallout pressures in Foodservice…
- …achieving a sale price of 10x pre-tax profit is a good price…
- …with benefits for Kitwave in terms of North of England coverage.
- Meanwhile, suppliers have time to check for, and correct, any potential prices & Terms anomalies…
- …before Kitwave does it on your behalf.
