Health food business looks to muscle in on Europe after £10m funding deal
A Midlands entrepreneur has secured a £10m funding deal to support the European expansion of his health food business.
Darren Beale founded West Bromwich-based Muscle Food in 2013 with a view to disrupting the grocery market with an online platform for the retail and delivery of healthy foods.
Muscle Food generated revenues of more than £45m in the year to March 31, 2017, supplying a range of products including fresh meat, snacks, ready meals and supplements.
The business has now secured the eight-figure funding deal from the Business Growth Fund (BGF) in a transaction led by global investment bank GCA Altium.
Following the investment, the company will develop its UK-leading online platform and expand into European markets such as Germany and the Netherlands.
Located in West Bromwich, Muscle Food operates from a 32,000 sq ft distribution centre. Products include its Protein Pizza, the UK’s fifth largest pizza brand, which is currently on sale in Sainsbury’s and will be launching in Morrisons this month.
A team at GCA Altium, led by Simon Lord and Andy Battersby, advised Muscle Food on the transaction. This marks GCA Altium’s 12th deal in the consumer space in the last 12 months and follows the high profile £171m IPO of sports retailer Footasylum.
Simon Lord, Managing Director at GCA Altium, said: “Muscle Food has grown rapidly since inception to become an extremely profitable and highly cash generative business. It operates in a sector that has raised vast sums in the UK and US and it has been a real pleasure advising the founders on its first external equity investment by BGF.”
Darren Beale, CEO at Muscle Food: “The partnership with BGF will help us accelerate our growth and switch even more customers on to our unique proposition.”
Greg Norman, BGF said: “The Muscle Food team are talented, focused and passionate. They have successfully managed the high-growth experience in the last three years and are ambitious about accelerating the expansion. We are pleased to be supporting the group as it continues to scale.”
Richard Harding and Steven Kingham, from EY Manchester provided vendor due diligence to the company shareholders on the transaction. Kieran Toal, James Skivington and Anna Mee, all from Pinsent Masons provided legal advice to the company while Tim Fearn provided banking legal advice.
