Manchester leads on £30m Scottish deal

A STRING of Manchester advisers have worked on a management buyout of East Kilbride-based Enterprise Foods.

The deal, believed to be worth £30m, has been led by current chairman Tony Moloney and London-based Hattington Capital.

The firm, which has bases in Manchester, Kendal and Barnsley, specialises in providing sales, marketing and logistics services to the bakery trade and connects small and local producers with large retail and foodservice buyers.

Yorkshire Bank’s Manchester team provided £14m of senior debt as well as £3.5m to support working capital. The bank was advised by lawyers at DLA Piper in Manchester, while the buyout team received corporate finance advice from Altium, due diligence from KPMG and legal from Turner Parkinson. Hattington Capital was advised by Deloitte and the law firm Macfarlanes.

Tony Moloney, chief executive of Enterprise Foods, said: “This is an exciting time for Enterprise Foods. We have partnered with Hattington Capital and with the help of Yorkshire Bank have secured the investment required for our five-year growth strategy.

“The Hattington team bring significant added value to the board of Enterprise Foods because of their experience across a wide variety of industries but especially within the UK food retail industry.”

Enterprise was founded in 1995 and in the last decade has grown to an annual turnover of around £60m and 40 staff.