Finsbury Food Group has acquired Fletchers Group from Vision Capital for £56m, including 600 staff at bakeries in Sheffield, Manchester and London. The deal will now see the speciality cake firm expand its presence in buns, muffins, scones and baguettes.
Both firms are major suppliers to the country’s biggest supermarkets, including Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Bradford-based Morrisons.
Finsbury is acquiring bakeries in Sheffield, Manchester and London employing just over 600 staff. They will sit alongside Finsbury’s own UK plants in Cardiff, Salisbury and Lanarkshire, with the enlarged group employing 3,000 staff.
Finsbury said the deal will make the enlarged business one of the largest speciality bakery groups in the UK with sales approaching £300m a year.
John Duffy, Chief Executive of Finsbury Food, commented, 'The acquisition of Fletchers is a transformational development for the Group, and will add scale to the effect that we will be one of the largest speciality bakery groups in the UK.
'Fletchers is a highly complementary business, which broadens the Finsbury UK speciality bakery product, customer and channel growth potential and will provide a strong platform for the Group to address the Foodservice markets. We believe the Enlarged Group will be in a strong position for new licensing arrangements, joint ventures and stronger customer and brand relationships.
'By servicing both the cake and bakery market, through both retail and foodservice, the Enlarged Group will have a diversified product and customer offering, and greater potential for driving growth for our shareholders. We look forward to welcoming the Fletchers team and customers into Finsbury Food and continuing to provide our newly broadened customer base with high quality products and service.'
Stephen Holding, Managing Director of Fletchers, said, 'Fletchers has undergone a significant transformation since it was acquired by Vision Capital in 2007, and I am very proud of the hard work and dedication of our colleagues which has made the company what it is today. This is an exciting next step for the company and I'm looking forward to the opportunities that being part of the enlarged Finsbury Foods will bring.'