Food Group delivers £10m turnaround
A NORTH Yorkshire-based food group has delivered EBITDA improvement of £10m in its first year as an independent business.
The latest results from Karro Food Group, based in Malton and one of the leading suppliers of British pork into the retail, trade and foodservice industries, mark a significant milestone in the company’s turnaround strategy, bringing the business close to EBITDA break-even point at -£3.3m, and turnover of £533m for 2013.
The group, which was acquired from VION by private equity house Endless in January 2012, also secured a £60m funding package from GE Capital, providing additional working capital and ability to invest into the business.
Di Walker, Karro executive chair, said: “We are extremely pleased with the progress made last financial year – our first as Karro. We delivered a £10m improvement in EBITDA, well-ahead of plan, despite an extremely tough pork market characterised by margin pressures and escalating raw material costs.
“We now have the right foundations in place to operate an efficient, effective business, based on strong partnerships with customers and our farming suppliers. I’m confident that this gives us a strong basis on which to continue to transform the underlying performance of our business and deliver excellent product quality and service levels to our customers.”
Walker added: “We are now 18 months into a five year turnaround plan and continue to make extremely good progress against that plan in 2014, with a focus on the ongoing development of our strategic retail and trade partnerships, and the expansion of our export business in the USA and China.
“I’m pleased to report that we are well on track to deliver a further £10m EBITDA improvement in 2014, which will see the group generating profit for the first time in many years.”
The privately owned company supplies fresh pork and cured, cooked and frozen meats to retail, foodservice and manufacturing customers.
It employs around 3,000 people across the UK and has nine divisions in England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Ireland.
