Supply chain manager Enterprise Foods has collapsed, throwing hundreds of suppliers into turmoil and leaving retailers such as Co-op with the prospects of empty shelves and chillers, The Grocer has learned.
The Scotland-headquartered group, which underwent a full rebrand as Localist – The Food Merchant in 2025, has appointed liquidators at Begbies Traynor to handle the winding-up of the company, which ceased trading on Wednesday (18 March 2026).
The sudden collapse has left suppliers up and down the country from Orkney in Scotland to Redruth in Cornwall facing uncertainty in how to supply their products to retailers and how to receive payment.
It is also unclear if the Enterprise workforce of 80 staff has yet to be made redundant.
Enterprise Foods set-up
Enterprise Foods works with 520 local suppliers across categories including bakery, fresh, frozen, dairy, ambient, confectionery, soft drinks, beer, wines and spirits, and non-food in the horticulture sector.
It manages the end-to-end process for its suppliers, delivering 4,000 products a week into more than 2,500 retail stores and 1,000 contract catering units.
Co-op and regional mutuals Co-op Central England, Midcounties Co-op and Heart of England Co-op are major customers, with Morrisons, Waitrose, Poundland, Amazon Fresh, Compass Group and Sodexo also listed on its website.
Co-op response
The Grocer understands the Co-op Group is working with Enterprise suppliers on temporary direct supply in the wake of the collapse.
It is asking suppliers to complete a form providing all information needed to onboard them quickly.
“This form also allows you to indicate whether you wish to continue trading with Co op under the temporary arrangements outlined in our communication. If you do not wish to trade with us on this basis, you can confirm that here,” the form said.
From today (20 March), Co-op will issue purchase orders directly to suppliers as a temporary arrangement to maintain supply, which will be paid on 30-day terms.
“Please note these arrangements are temporary while we work with you and other affected suppliers to determine whether a future direct trading relationship with Co-op is appropriate,” communications to suppliers, seen by The Grocer, added.
“Any ongoing relationship would follow Co-op’s standard supplier onboarding process, including acceptance of our standard terms and conditions, technical compliance checks, credit checks, and a formal written agreement.
“If you indicate on the attached form that you wish to continue trading with us, we will contact you separately to outline the onboarding steps.”
A Co-op spokeswoman told The Grocer: “We take great pride in offering a local range across our stores and following the unexpected news of Enterprise Foods Ltd entering liquidation, we have acted quickly to minimise disruption on shelves, immediately contacting all affected suppliers directly so we can maintain supply wherever possible.
”We remain committed to offering a local range across our stores, which is much loved by our customers, and have offered our full support to these local, small suppliers as we work through the next steps.”
Challenging trading at Enterprise Foods
Revenues at Enterprise Foods fell by almost £10m in the year to 30 June 2024 to £62.5m as two of its retail customers moved sourcing and delivery of bread and milk in-house, according to the most recent set of accounts at Companies House.
The group also wound down operations of its Manchester hub and focused on a new business model during the financial year. It recruited a new CEO in February 2024 and underwent a complete rebrand to Localist, which launched in May 2025, to help drive a turnaround.
It made a pre-tax loss of £4.7m at group level in 2023/24.
Enterprise, which was founded in 1995, has failed to generate a profit since a £30m management buyout led by chief executive Tony Moloney and PE firm Hattington Capital in 2014.
Moloney led a previous £4.5m MBO of the company seven years prior to the 2014 buyout.
Enterprise doubled staff numbers from 40 in 2014 to current levels.
BTG appointed as provisional liquidator
Begbies Traynor confirmed it had been appointed as provisional liquidator by the courts on 18 March, following a petition by the company after it failed to refinance debts of more than £5m.
The insolvency firm said Enterprise had experienced ongoing cashflow difficulties that were built up in recent years by legacy bad debts from the failure of a number of customers, and were exacerbated by challenging market conditions in the retail and hospitality sectors.
“The directors had made efforts to restructure the debt of the company in order to save the business and rescue the jobs, and the loss of the jobs was sadly inevitable when this was not successful,” Thomas McKay, managing partner of BTG in Scotland and Northern Ireland, said.
“There are many small suppliers to the business that are owed money, and the loss of this route to market will also have a serious knock-on effect to these food producers as well. We are working to assess all claims and establish whether there will be any dividend paid to unsecured creditors, but it is not likely to be significant, given the level of secured debts in the business.
“Regrettably, the failure of the company has resulted in 71 redundancies and we are working closely with those affected to help them access the financial entitlements and support available to them.
“Our priorities now include ensuring these employees receive the guidance and advice they need during this process, and that we maximise the return from the sale of assets to the benefit of creditors.”
This story has been updated at 9am on 23 March 2026 to include additional information from BTG, which arrived after hours on 20 March following a request from The Grocer for comment
No comments yet