Flour miller Whitworths Food Group has agreed to acquire KTC Edibles for an undisclosed sum.
KTC, a packer and distributor of edible oils, is one of the UK’s biggest food and drink suppliers having seen its sales double over the past five years off the back of soaring commodity prices.
Its scale was boosted further in 2023 with the acquisitions of Cardowan, a Scottish specialist margarine manufacturer, and Trilby, an Irish bulk distributor of edible oils.
Its revenue stood at over £500m in its latest accounts for the year to December 2023, delivering a pre-tax profit of £11.7m.
It has been owned by private equity firm Endless since May 2022. Endless said last year it had “taken a number of actions to both simplify and streamline [KTC] and invest behind additional capabilities”.
The sale marks Endless’ second major exit from a food business in as many months after it sold Karnova Food Group to US meat giant OSI Group in February. Its other investments include Hovis and Bright Blue Food.
Whitworths is a leading flour milling business with 10 mills across the UK, and supplies almost exclusively into food manufacturing. Its annual revenues stand at over £600m.
Paresh Mehta, CEO of KTC, said Whitworths’ “shared knowledge of developing a market-leading enterprise for all stakeholders will be hugely beneficial for KTC”.
“It is also an exciting development for our customers given the product offering of the combined business.”
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