France-based food company Solina Group said it has acquired Essential Cuisine in the UK, a supplier of stocks, jus and gravies to the foodservice sector.
Located in Winsford, Cheshire, Essential Cuisine was founded in 1995 by Nigel Crane and is set to generate sales of EUR15m (US$18m) in 2018. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
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Solina, which was formed in 2012 through the merger of Savena Group & Sfinc Group, said Essential Cuisine’s management team will remain in place, while existing shareholders will stay until the end of July to ensure a smooth transition. Adam Jones, the country manager of Solina’s operations, will lead the integration programme.
Crane said Essential Cuisine had sought a partner to take the business forward and chose Solina because of its “interesting potential synergies”.
He added: “As shareholders we realised that maintaining such growth on our own becomes more and more difficult and we decided last Autumn to find the right future partner for Essential Cuisine.
“Essential Cuisine today is an important player in the UK foodservice and ingredients market following fast growth over the last 15 years, based on an effective business model and a strongly motivated team.”
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By GlobalDataHeadquartered in Breal-Sous-Monfort in Brittany, Solina has three plants in both France and Belgium, two in the Netherlands, and one each in Sweden and Denmark.
Solina’s chief executive, Laurent Weber, said: ”For Solina, the acquisition represents the latest step in its growth strategy across the European food market. We keep expanding our capabilities in EMEA through selected acquisitions opportunities in the savoury market – the presence of EC in the foodservice segment is a clear sign of our wish to strongly grow on this segment next to B2B and butchers.”
