Apta, the leading supplier of quality flowerpots and accessories to the UK garden trade, is looking to strengthen its merchandising team with the recruitment of motivated and ambitious Product Merchandisers...
Private equity firm sells its share of pet food firm
Piper, a leading UK private equity firm specialising in consumer brands with strong growth potential, has exited its investment in natural dog food brand Forthglade to IK Investment Partners. The terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
Based in Devon, Forthglade has been making high quality, natural dog food for nearly 50 years. The business develops its own recipes using a combination of nutritionally balanced ingredients (95% sourced from the UK) with added vitamins and minerals that contain no artificial colours, flavours or preservatives.
Piper invested £6m into the business in September 2015 when the business had sales of £11m. Piper’s investment has enabled the business to increase sales to £22m, with branded sales increasing more than four times. This has been driven by increased distribution, the development of a strong direct to consumer channel and the continued innovation in product range both of its broad range of tray based wet food as well as the introduction of cold pressed dry food and treats. In 2018 Forthglade built a 70,000sq ft state of the art manufacturing facility in Okehampton that would enable the business to triple production capacity. The company employs 130 people.
Following the transaction, Gerard Lovell and Chris Brooking, who originally bought Forthglade in 2011, will continue to lead the business alongside IK Investment Partners.
Libby Gibson, partner of Piper, said: “Our goal at Piper is to discover consumer businesses with great potential and help build them into brand legends. The team at Forthglade have done an outstanding job in making Forthglade such an iconic brand in the highly competitive pet food market, and it has been a great pleasure to work alongside them to help them realise their ambitions. We wish them every success in the future.”
Joint Managing Director Gerard Lovell said: “We have thoroughly enjoyed working with Piper whose support and expertise have been invaluable in helping us achieve so much. We are much looking forward to working with IK Investment Partners to continue building Forthglade into a global brand.”
Houlihan Lokey acted as the exclusive corporate finance advisor to the shareholders.