Village Bakery: Private equity owner sells business to French bread maker
The private equity firm behind Village Bakery, which supplies the likes of Tesco, Aldi and Five Guys, has sold its controlling stake in the firm to a French giant.
Limerston Capital, which invested in the Wrexham-based bakery group in 2021, has sold its shares to Groupe Menissez for an undisclosed sum.
Since the private equity firm took a controlling stake Village Bakery has opened a new 140,000 sq ft “super bakery” at its headquarters and almost doubled its headcount to more than 900 employees.
The transaction is Limerston’s third exit from its first fund, Limerston Capital Partners I.
‘Exciting future’ for Village Bakery
João Rosa, founding partner at Limerston Capital, said: “We are delighted to have exited Village Bakery ahead of plan, following a period of significant investment, development and rapid growth for the company.
“Supported by the Limerston operating partners, the Village Bakery management team deserve enormous credit for their commitment and diligence in delivering the highest standards of product quality and best-in-class service to their loyal customers while doubling group sales since the opening of the super-bakery.
“We wish the team well and we are delighted that Groupe Menissez will be overseeing the company’s next phase of growth.”
Robin Jones, CEO and co-owner at Village Bakery, added: “I would like to thank Limerston Capital and their team for their input, support and playing their part in growing Village Bakery into what it is today.
“We can all be very proud of our achievements over the past three years, the quality of the platform that we have built and the exciting future for the business working with Groupe Menissez.”
Groupe Menissez, which is headquartered in Feignies in the North of France, makes bake-at-home products that are stocked in UK supermarkets including Sainsburys and Costco.
Price rises fail to stop baker slipping further into the red
The deal comes after Village Bakery said a recent string of price rises came too late to save it from slipping further into the red.
Village Bakery hit a turnover of almost £98m in the 12 months ended September 30, 2023, up from just over £69m in the year before.
But this rise wasn’t enough to return the group to profit, as it made a pre-tax loss of just under £22m, an increase of £5m from £17.4m in the year before.