The Fast 50: Who are the fastest-growing suppliers in fmcg?

 

As supermarkets struggle, the search for growth is all-consuming. Over the next 10 pages, The Grocer’s Fast 50 showcases the UK’s fastest growing privately owned suppliers. The ranking features some familiar names and some exciting newcomers. So how are they achieving growth where others are failing? What are the sectors they are operating in? What are the secret ingredients of their success?

 

01 (NEW) BrewDog

Formed: 2007

Sales: £18m

2yr CAGR: 74.8%

Owned by: Co-founders Alan Martin Dickie and James Watt, plus eight other main shareholders and over 15,000 crowd-funded shareholders.

What’s happened: Just seven years old, this upstart craft beer brewer has won countless awards. But its genius has been combining craft with crafty marketing.

A self-styled iconoclastic brand, it’s gained tons of cheap publicity with oddball beer names (Tactical Nuclear Penguin, anyone?) and even odder stunts (such as maturing beer on the deck of a working fishing trawler).

Arguably its most daring stunt came earlier this year, mocking Vladimir Putin’s notoriously homophobic utterances in the run-up to the Winter Olympics in Sochi with the launch of a double IPA 8.2 abv beer called ‘Hello, my name is Vladimir’.

“I am a beer for uber hetero men who ride horses while topless and carrying knives,” read the blurb. “I am a beer to mark the 2014 Winter Olympics. But I am not for gays. Love wrestling burly men on the Judo mat or fishing in your Speedos? Then this is the beer for you!”

BrewDog sent a case to the Kremlin and also donated 50% of the profits from the beer to “charitable organisations that support like-minded individuals wishing to express themselves freely without prejudice.”

BrewDog has regularly found itself in hot water with the Portman Group, refusing to kowtow to concerns about super-strength beers by brewing the world’s strongest beer (Tokyo), and a beer spirit (WattDickie) - and garnered headlines earlier this year for an expletive-laden attack on the drinks industry’s self-regulation body following repeated criticism of its marketing and conduct.

Stocked nationally in Tesco, it has also funded rapid growth of both its beer sales and BrewDog bars (18 so far across the UK and five overseas) by becoming a ‘public’ company that is not listed, having made shares available via its ‘Equity for Punks’ crowdfunding scheme in three releases from 2009 to 2013.

So far, the crowdfunding scheme has raised more than £6.5m, but co-founder James Watt has promised a £1bn IPO in 2019, according to a report in The Times. It also revealed plans to launch a spirits division this year.

Figures-wise, pre-tax profits exploded by 385% to £2.3m on sales of £18m (up 69%) in 2013. Expected sales of £32m for FY2014, would put its CAGR at 57.7% next year.

02 (03) JDM Food Group

Formed:  2007

Sales: £24.6m

2yr CAGR: 66.2%

Owned by: Tim Bertin

What’s happened: The Lincolnshire-based food processor and distributor climbed one place to second in this year’s ranking. JDM has invested £4m in boosting its production plant as it expands in the UK and beyond. Initially focused on producing garlic, it now sources, pre-packs and prepares a wide range of fresh produce - including ginger, sweet potatoes, butternut squash, onions, chillies, sun-dried tomatoes and beetroot (below) - from around the world. It also makes sauces, dips, marinades, rubs and purées.

Its clientele spans small independent retailers through to global supermarket chains, as well as food manufacturers and foodservice companies. It also recently signed a production deal with US giant Sugar Foods.

Sales grew 47% to £24.6m in 2012, while pre-tax profits soared 352% to £571,000.

Run by founder Tim Bertin and MD Jon Chesworth, it was named as one of the UK’s 1,000 most inspiring companies by the London Stock Exchange, one of only 14 food production companies within the report.

06 (NEW) Hotel Chocolat Group

Formed: 1993

Sales: £67.8m

2yr CAGR: 40.4%

Owned by: Angus Thirlwell and Peter Harris

What’s happened: Making its first appearance on the Fast 50, the group continues to expand its retail outlets in the UK with railway station shops, a café, restaurant and School of Chocolate. It now has 75 outlets in the UK. It is also expanding beyond the UK, opening shops in Copenhagen and Amsterdam as well as broadening its beauty range with bath and body products. This year it also launched a “game-changing” lower-sugar milk chocolate bar. Group sales rose 6% to £67.8m in 2013. Its subsidiary Hotel Chocolat Ltd posted sales of £13.5m, up modestly from £13.1m the year before. Pre-tax profits fell 30% to £2.06m. In 2012, the group hired PricewaterhouseCoopers to explore a sale and was in talks with potential buyers, with a price tag rumoured to be between £50m and £100m.

17 (NEW) GRH Food Company

Formed: 1989 (incorporated 2002)

Sales: £16.8

2yr CAGR: 30.5%

Owned by: Gareth & Andrew Hockridge

What’s happened: Strong sales and profit growth bring a Fast 50 debut for the GRH Food Company.

Based in Pwllheli, North Wales, this cheese producer, processor and packager supplies its predominantly hard cheese in the form of ‘Signature’ graded, block, sliced and blended cheeses to retail, industrial, wholesale and food service customers. It also offers packs of grated mozarella ‘pizza cheese’ under the Papa Gino label, which it supplies to high street discounter 99p stores.

GRH employs 44 people and says it has a state-of-the-art production plant, including a fully automated grating line.

Pre-tax profits more than doubled from £313,000 to £661,000 in the year to 31 March 2013, while sales increased from £11.1m to £16.8m, pushing it to number 17 in the list. It also offers advice to the pizza and foodservice industries.

24 (06) Aspall Cyder 

Formed: Incorporated 1986

Sales: £19.8m

2yr CAGR: 27.7%

Owned by: The Chevallier Guild and Guild families

What’s happened: Chairman Barry Chevallier Guild says exports are thriving this year, with “fantastic growth” to the US, China and India. Pre-tax profits grew strongly from £346,000 to £523,000 in the year to 31 March 2013 on sales of £19.8m.

35 (NEW) PK Food Concepts (Pasta King)

Formed: 2009

Sales: £16.5m

2yr CAGR: 24.3%

Owned by: NBGI Private Equity Fund, Howard Farquhar and others

What’s happened: The PK group was formed in 2009 following an MBO of Pasta King (UK), which has provided meals and snacks to the educational and foodservice sectors since 1994. in 2011, PK purchased and rebranded sandwich maker Tasties of Chester.

Pasta King and Tasties now form the backbone of the group, offering hot and cold meals and snacks from two BRC grade A facilities in the North and South of England. The group supplies nationally through distributors and its fleet of branded vans.

Recent NPD includes its Street Heats, which can be prepared centrally and moved to satellite units where they can be held hot, as well as microwaveable, vending-machine-compatible snack pots.

 

41 (NEW) Haywood & Padgett

Formed: 1987

Sales: £20.1m

2yr CAGR: 21.7%

Owned by: Wayne Padgett

What’s happened: Yorkshire-based Haywood & Padgett started life in 1987 as a two-man operation running out of a small rented unit. It is now the UK’s largest scone manufacturer, producing about 4.5 million scones a week and employing more than 100 people.

Its 31,000 sq ft, purpose-built factory can produce over 50,000 scones per hour. It bakes branded and non-branded products for the supermarkets, including Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury’s, Morrisons and Iceland, and the foodservice sector, as well as brands like Tetley, which launched a range of scones in 2011 in three different flavours.

It sells in Europe and as far afield as Australia and Japan. Solely owned by the Padgett family, it is run by MD Wayne Padgett, one of the two original founders of the scone operation. His daughter Rebecca has since joined him.

47 (NEW) Cobell International (Primeturn)

Formed: 1999

Sales: £37.3m

2yr CAGR: 20.4%

Owned by: Nick Sprague and the directors

What’s happened: Cobell imports, blends, stocks, packs and distributes a huge range of processed fruit juice concentrates, NFC fruit juices and fruit purées, as well as ice cream, condiments and ready meals. It forecasts sales of £45m this year.

Cobell also owns Frobishers, a premium bottled fruit juice brand it acquired in 2009. It sold the PWR+ brand to G’s Fresh in June 2013.

Cobell operates one of the few aseptic packaging facilities in the UK, which allows products that would normally require frozen storage to be held at ambient or chilled temperatures, making it easier to store, handle and transport. It also extends shelf life compared with normal packaging.