European food business swoops for specialty culinary sauce producer

A MAJOR supplier to the global food market, which has sites across Europe, has acquired a culinary sauce business from a successful Yorkshire entrepreneur as it looks to strengthen its UK presence.

Solina Group, which develops, creates, and supplies taste and visual, functional, and nutritional solutions for the food market, has swooped for Rob Whitehead’s company New Ivory, a producer of culinary sauces for the meat, fish and poultry industries based in Elland.

New Ivory employs 180 staff. As part of the deal, the existing management team will remain with the company.

Mr Whitehead, founder of Harrogate-based food group Zubrance, has an impressive track record in developing food manufacturing businesses.

In 1995 he took over Matthews Foods – a supplier of fats, spreads and margarines to retailers and food manufacturers – and grew the company’s turnover from £6m to £40m.

In 2005 he oversaw the disposal of the group to Kerry Foods. Since then he has focused on building up a new group of food ingredient companies.

Mr Whitehead said: “Whilst I’m sad it’s the end of an era for me, I think it’s the right thing for New Ivory and the team. In addition to the culinary expertise and customer focus at the heart of New Ivory’s value proposition, Solina brings a global reach and scale now needed to compete in a truly world class market like chilled food. Solina’s plans in the UK are very exciting and I think our customers will welcome the ongoing choice that the introduction of Solina will bring.”

Laurent Weber, CEO of Solina Group, said: “New Ivory is highly recognised for its proactivity and service level in both the retail and industry markets. We have been particularly impressed by the level of quality of the production process. We look forward to working with the management team to develop further our new platform in the UK. New Ivory will benefit from the existing European network of Solina with multiple R&D centers and technologies. We plan to provide New Ivory’s customers with access to Solina’s broader platform of products, ingredients and services which is now unique in Europe.”

Adam Jones, managing director of New Ivory, said: “We are looking forward to being part of the Solina Group. Together with Solina, we will continue to develop our product and service offering to not only help our customers achieve their growth plans but also provide greater assurance throughout the supply chain.”

Richard Naish and Rebecca Austin-Heath, both in the corporate team at Walker Morris, provided legal support to Mr Whitehead.

Mr Naish said: “We are pleased to have been able to help Rob and the team realise the sale of New Ivory.  The deal reinforces Walker Morris’ reputation in the food and drink sector, with a multidisciplinary team that is able to draw from a wide range of expertise and knowledge from across the firm.”

Solina was advised by Oghma Partners, Eversheds and EY. Mr Whitehead was also advised by Grant Thornton.

The parties have agreed not to disclose the transaction value.

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