Investment in Meadow Foods
Meadow Foods, the UK’s largest independently owned dairy group and a leading supplier of milk and dairy ingredients to the food industry, has completed a strategic investment with Paine & Partners, a leading global food and agribusiness investment firm. This strategic investment is to support Meadow Foods’ strategy to grow the business through organic expansion and acquisitions.
With this transaction, the Chantler family will remain a substantial shareholder in Meadow Foods, and there are no plans to change the executive management or the broad structure of the business. The Pickering family will exit as shareholders in Meadow Foods.
Meadow Foods operates three UK factories, located in Cheshire, Yorkshire and Peterborough. The company manufactures a full range of dairy ingredients including butters, fresh, cultured and sweetened products for some of the world’s leading food manufacturing businesses.
US-based Paine & Partners exclusively invests in food and agribusiness companies and has a team of 25 investment, operations and finance professionals focused on investing globally across the food and agribusiness value chain and throughout cycles.
Simon Chantler, executive chairman of Meadow Foods, comments: “This investment represents a new and exciting phase in the continued development of our business and will open new avenues of opportunity for all of our producer partners, customers and employees.”
Dexter Paine, chairman, chief executive and a founding partner of Paine & Partners, says: “In Meadow Foods, we are making a strategic investment in an industry leader that we believe is poised for continued growth. Meadow Foods’ experienced management team and employees have built a blue-chip customer base with a well-deserved reputation for innovation and reliable delivery of the highest-quality products. We see opportunities to drive growth both organically by increasing production, enhancing capabilities and expanding into new product lines and markets, and through strategic acquisitions that leverage the company’s supply network and customer relationships. The two most important assets to a business are its people and reputation, and Meadow Foods is exceptional in both of these areas. We are very excited to work with the team to execute its strategy for growth.”
