LONDON — Limerston Capital, the UK mid-market private equity investment firm, has completed the exit of Village Bakery, the premium private label baked goods company to the leading French value-added industrial bakery business, Groupe Menissez, delivering a return in excess of 3.5x MoM and 50% IRR.
Village Bakery produces baked goods at scale for leading brands across the retail, hospitality and food service sectors in the UK including Marks & Spencer, Tesco, the Co-op and Sainsbury’s. Limerston invested in Village Bakery in 2021 and has overseen a period of investment and rapid growth including the opening of a new 140,000 sq ft ‘super bakery’ at the company’s headquarters in Wrexham, UK and the near doubling of staff numbers taking the company to a team of over 900 employees. The bakery now features three new ‘state-of-the-art’ automated lines producing top quality bread rolls, sourdough loaves and pancakes for its customers.
Limerston Capital is a private equity firm targeting UK businesses with EBITDA of between £5 million and £15 million. It partners with management teams to help build them into industry leaders through buy-and-build and operational transformation.
The transaction is Limerston’s third exit from its first fund, Limerston Capital Partners I.
João Rosa, Founding Partner, Limerston Capital commented: “We are delighted to have exited Village Bakery ahead of plan, following a period of significant investment, development and rapid growth for the company.”
“Supported by the Limerston operating partners, the Village Bakery management team deserve enormous credit for their commitment and diligence in delivering the highest standards of product quality and best-in-class service to their loyal customers while doubling Group sales since the opening of the super-bakery. We wish the team well and we are delighted that Groupe Menissez will be overseeing the company’s next phase of growth.”
Robin Jones, CEO and co-owner, said: “I would like to thank Limerston Capital and their team for their input, support and playing their part in growing Village Bakery into what it is today. We can all be very proud of our achievements over the past three years, the quality of the platform that we have built and the exciting future for the business working with Groupe Menissez.”
Stephens acted as financial advisor and CMS Law acted as legal advisor to the sellers. KPMG (financial & tax) and PwC (commercial) provided vendor due diligence.
About Limerston Capital
Founded in 2015 by James Paget, João Rosa and Martim Avillez, London based Limerston Capital pursues control investments in UK mid-market companies and seeks to create value through the firm’s buy-and-build and operationally focused model. The firm targets businesses with EBITDA of between £5 million and £15 million that have a solid value proposition, but have potential for operational improvements, have mispriced underlying returns on capital and provide opportunities for strategic repositioning via consolidation.
About Groupe Menissez
Based in Feignies, France, Groupe Menissez is a family business founded in 1965 and owned by Laurent Menissez and his family. Its bakery business generates group sales of around €600mm. Groupe Menissez has become one of the world’s leading value-added industrial bakers, with products tailored to its customers (bake at home, modified atmosphere packaging and fresh products). With this investment, Groupe Menissez continues to grow following its partnerships with Boulart in Canada, Délice de France in the UK, Van Roy in the Netherlands and Lemarié Patissier in France.
