Maven makes a profitable exit from Atlantic Foods Group

Maven Capital Partners (Maven) has sold its stake in Atlantic Foods Group (Atlantic) to US company Flagship Food Group LLC (Flagship), realising a return of over 1.8x on the initial investment. The sale represents the 7th profitable exit in little over a year for Maven.

Atlantic is a supplier and manufacturer of innovative menu solutions to the UK foodservice market. It serves many of the leading casual dining, delivery and pub chains throughout Britain. The team at Maven originally invested in the business in 2008 and has since supported the management team in more than doubling turnover, with annual sales now exceeding £50 million.

The acquisition of Atlantic by Los Angeles based Flagship brings together two complementary businesses, each focused on developing, sourcing, manufacturing and distributing a wide range of innovative food products for retail and restaurant customers, and will allow the enlarged business to extend its European footprint. It also represents a perfect strategic fit for Atlantic in terms of product lines, key relationships and business culture, and provides an opportunity for the business to continue its impressive growth.

The combined business is expected to generate approximately £200 million in annual turnover and will operate from seven facilities across five time zones.

Andrew Symmonds, Portfolio Manager at Maven Capital Partners, said: “Atlantic has achieved strong year-on-year growth over the life of our investment, through a combination of winning new customers, the introduction of additional products and the businesses ability to gain incremental product listings with existing customers. Atlantic is an example of a thriving UK SME with a strong management team, which has been able to achieve significant growth with private equity backing from Maven.”

“The sale to Flagship provides the opportunity for the business to pursue its strategy for international expansion and has delivered an attractive investment return for Maven’s investors.”

Russell Maddock, CEO at Atlantic Foods, added: “Maven has been an excellent partner for our business over the past five years, using its experience of working with food sector businesses to help us steadily grow the Atlantic brand. We are looking forward to working with Flagship and building on what we have achieved to date. Bringing the two businesses together will provide the size and resource needed to support our future growth plans.”