Kings, Wild West and Cruga owner New World Foods has posted a double digit jump in sales and profits in the run-up to its acquisition by Valeo Food Group last year.

The jerky and biltong snacking player posted a 22% jump in sales in the year to 31 July to £23.2m and has continued to benefit from the category’s growth over the past year.

James Newitt, CEO of New World Foods, said the jerky and biltong meat snacks category has continued to grow over the last year, up 7% to 12 June, with its Kings brand driving much of this growth with sales up 23%.

Meanwhile, operating profits more than doubled from £1.4m to £3.4m as consolidation of its operations after integrating acquisitions and streamlining its cost base boosted the bottom line.

New World Foods has grown into Europe’s second largest meat snacking player after former owner, Australian-based entrepreneur Tony Quinn, bought Meatsnacks Group in 2018 just six months after his purchase of the Kings Elite.

In August last year, the company become Valeo’s first acquisition since its own £1.5bn takeover by Bain Capital.

Newitt said the change in ownership had enabled “significant investment in brand awareness and product innovations, which will ultimately support the continued growth of our brands into the future.”

This year Wild West partnered with the ‘Tough Mudder’ endurance event series and their 130,000 race participants, resulting in an “enormous sampling activation campaign over the summer period,” he said.

The 2020/21 accounts showed New World Foods growing domestic UK sales by 23% to £19.8m and EU sales by 16% to £3.4m.