Premier Foods plc has acquired The Spice Tailor

Arrowpoint Advisory’s Consumer, Retail and Leisure team has advised one of the UK’s largest food businesses, Premier Foods plc, on its acquisition of The Spice Tailor, a premium, authentic Indian and South East Asian meal kits and accompaniments brand.

A FTSE 250 company, Premier Foods plc employs over 4,000 people operating across 15 sites around the UK. It supplies a range of retail, wholesale, foodservice and other customers with its iconic brands which include Ambrosia, Batchelors, Bisto, Loyd Grossman, Mr. Kipling, Oxo and Sharwood’s.

Founded by Anjum Anand and Adarsh Sethia in 2010, The Spice Tailor is particularly popular with consumers who enjoy scratch cooking and appreciate the strong authentic taste profiles the products deliver. As a result of the transaction, The Spice Tailor will benefit from increased levels of marketing investment to drive product awareness and household penetration, additional new product development resources, and access to Premier Foods’ commercial capabilities and strong retailer relationships. The Spice Tailor’s largest markets are the UK and Australia.

Alex Whitehouse, Chief Executive Officer at Premier Foods plc, commented: “We have greatly admired The Spice Tailor business for some time and we're very much looking forward to it joining our existing stable of strong brands. The acquisition is well aligned to our growth strategy and we see a clear opportunity to build on the excellent track record of The Spice Tailor, by leveraging the elements of our proven branded growth model. This acquisition represents a highly complementary geographical fit, and we see significant potential to expand The Spice Tailor's distribution in all our target markets. We see this as another important milestone for us following the Group's strong performance over recent years and The Spice Tailor is an important addition to accelerate our future growth plans.”

Alex went on to add: “The Arrowpoint Advisory team, leveraging Rothschild & Co’s leading consumer sector insight, provided invaluable support and advice throughout the transaction to the Premier Foods team.”

Anjum Anand and Adarsh Sethia, Co-Founders of The Spice Tailor, added: “We’re very pleased that The Spice Tailor will become part of Premier Foods and are looking forward to unlocking further growth for the brand which we have nurtured since its inception. We see Premier with their track record of brand investment and strong commercial relationships, as the perfect fit for The Spice Tailor, driving it onto the next stage of its evolution.”

Gavin Orde, Managing Director at Arrowpoint Advisory, concluded: “We are delighted to have advised the team at Premier Foods on this exciting first acquisition since Alex Whitehouse became CEO. The Spice Tailor is a premium and high growth brand in an attractive segment which brings new consumers to the category.  The brand now has a great opportunity to scale significantly as part of the Premier Foods portfolio.”

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