Acquisition deal creates £1.2 billion food business

Karro Food Group has signed an agreement to acquire Young’s Seafood. The deal will create a food business with more than 5,000 members of staff to its name across its operations in the UK and Ireland.

Owned and backed by private equity firm CapVest since 2017, Karro Food Group’s takeover of Young’s Seafood Ltd will allow the companies to create a combined sales worth £1.2 billion. Young’s was initially put up for sale in April 2018 by its ex-owner Lion/Gem Luxembourg.

The two businesses will continue their operations separately, but under one enlarged parent company which will be head by Karro’s current chief executive, Di Walker.

In a statement, Walker said: “We are very excited about the opportunity to create an ambitious multi-protein food business of considerable scale. Young's and Karro are highly complementary businesses and the combined platform will have strong market positions in two important protein categories that are experiencing consistent long-term growth. Today's agreement will provide both businesses with the opportunity to further develop and broaden our relationships with our key partners.”

Similarly, the chief executive of Young’s, Bill Showalter, commented: “We are delighted to be moving forward with Karro and CapVest and we believe this move will be positive for the fish and seafood industry as a whole. With CapVest's existing understanding of our industry, and as part of a multi-protein food group, we will have the opportunity to inspire more consumers to love fish through our fresh, frozen, own-label and branded products.

“The transaction will build an even stronger foundation from which we can drive growth, providing exceptional quality fish and stand out innovation to countries around the world.”

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