British food company Eight Fifty Food Group has been sold by current owner CapVest Partners to Canadian food manufacturer Sofina.
Eight Fifty is based on the Karro Food Group, which resumed its British pork activities in Vion UK at the end of 2012. Another offshoot is frozen fish under the British brand Young’s Seafood.
‘Leading protein supplier’
CapVest acquired Karro Food Group, one of the UK’s largest integrated pork companies, from investment firm Endless in 2017. It funded the management buyout of Vion UK’s pork division five years earlier. Young’s Seafood was also acquired in 2019, after which the company continued under the name Eight Fifty Food Group. Eight Fifty calls itself ‘one of Europe’s leading protein suppliers’.
Continue under current management
Eight Fifty has around 8,300 employees spread across 23 production companies. The company is increasingly exporting to Asia and North America. Eight Fifty will continue to operate under its current management. Director Di Walker: “We started as a British pork supplier with a turnover of just under €580 million. After several years of growth and acquisitions, we are now a European specialist with sales of over €2.3 billion.”
Sofina Food
The new owner of Sofina Foods is one of Canada’s largest food companies. The company has 21 branches and employs 5,000 people. The takeover still has to be approved by various competition services.
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