Acquisition is icing on the cake for Napier Brown
British sugar-to-nuts company Napier Brown Foods today sweetened up its portfolio with the purchase of a cake-covering manufacturer for £18.5m (€27.3m).
London-based Napier Brown, the UK’s largest independent sugar distributor and trades under the Whitworth brand, said the purchase of Renshaw Scott continued its strategy of acquiring complementary businesses.
Renshaw Scott supplies baking ingredients such as marzipan, ready to roll icing, baking chocolate and jam to major cake manufacturers, high street bakers and the sugar craft trade.
It was Napier Brown’s fifth acquisition since it was formed and listed on the London Stock Exchange last Autumn.
Napier chairman Patrick Ridgewell said: “The recognised product development skills of Renshaw Scott and their strong links with the bakery trade will provide new opportunities for all our divisions.”
He said the acquisition of Renshaw Scott would allow the company greater purchasing power and would increase its manufacturing efficiencies. The announcement came as Napier Brown revealed current trading was ahead of expectations.
Although Renshaw Scott will be consolidated within the business, all 175 employees will be transferred. Some 120 of these staff are employed at a factory in Liverpool, while the remainder work at a plant in Carluke, Scotland.
Renshaw Scott was created in the 1990s when the Renshaw and Scott businesses - created more than 100 years ago – merged together.
Napier Brown’s customers include Kelloggs, Tesco, Morrisons, Cadbury Schweppes and Thorntons. Last month it acquired James Budgett Sugars, which distributes sugar throughout the UK to manufacturers of food, soft drinks, pharmaceuticals and animal foods.
