Bidfood to relaunch Punjab Kitchen as Simply Puree

Bidfood is preparing to relaunch specialist dietary meal supplier The Punjab Kitchen as Simply Puree after acquiring the business for  £16m.

The new website www.simplypuree.co.uk is now live, currently operating alongside The Punjab Kitchen’s original website.

This is expected to be the first of several developments to the newly acquired business according to Bidfood.

The foodservice giant is also planning to invest in improvements to The Punjab Kitchen’s South Shields HQ.

The business will continue to operate autonomously under owners Mohammed and Yaqoob Ishaq. It was founded by Mohammed Ishaq 20 years ago.

The acquisition took place in January but was only confirmed by Bidfood’s South African parent company Bidcorp in a trading update last month. It has been reported in South Africa that it paid R291m (£15.9m) for The Punjab Kitchen.

“We’re delighted to welcome Punjab Kitchen into the Bidfood family,” said Bidfood UK CEO Andrew Selley. “Over the last 20 years both Mohammed and Yaqoob Ishaq have developed this exceptional and thriving business, to become a leading manufacturer of texture-modified and specialist diet meals for the healthcare sector, as well as a high-quality supplier of ready-to-serve and finished dishes to a wide range of foodservice customers.

“Both Mohammed and Yaqoob will stay on and run Punjab Kitchen as an autonomous and independent business, in the same way as other successful businesses in the Bidfood family.”

The family-run meal supplier specialises in supplying individually-plated dietary-specific meals predominantly to the hospital and care home, home delivery, pub and conference sectors.

Turnover at The Punjab Kitchen was £7.7m for the year ending September 2018, up 9.9% the previous year. Pre-tax profits fell 7.3% to £1.5m for the same period.

“Our focus is very much about service excellence, putting the customer first, and we have worked hard to offer our clients meals which not only look good but taste good too,” said Mohammed Ishaq. “When looking for an investor, we were keen to choose a like-minded business who were customer, research and technology-focused, as well as one which is committed to continuously developing our offerings.”