Eastwood Anglo Corporate Finance | Selling my business East Midlands | Corporate finance adviser West Midlands | Management buyouts South Yorkshire

Overview

Eastwood Anglo advises on the creation of a strategic joint venture between two established UK fresh produce businesses

The Situation

Two established farming and fresh produce businesses identified an opportunity to combine complementary capabilities in response to increasing consolidation within the UK fresh produce sector.

One party was a long-established grower-owned organisation with a strong position in specialist produce and foodservice, an established brand and its own processing facility. The other was a leading family-owned farming and fresh produce business with significant scale, modern processing capabilities and established relationships with major UK retailers.

The challenge was to develop a structure that could deliver the commercial benefits of greater scale and market reach while preserving the grower organisation's independence, identity and important existing obligations.

Our Role

Bill Eastwood led the transaction in his capacity as Chairman of the grower-owned business, drawing on his corporate finance and strategic advisory experience to help develop and negotiate the joint venture structure.

The transaction required the parties to address a number of interconnected commercial and structural considerations, including the future sales and marketing model, operation of the processing facility, retention of asset ownership, preservation of the existing brand and the continuing interests of grower members.

A structure was ultimately agreed under which the strategic partner became the exclusive marketing agent for the grower organisation's produce and assumed responsibility for operating its processing facility, while ownership of the facility and equipment remained with the grower organisation.

The Outcome

The joint venture created a substantially broader combined market offering and opened additional opportunities across retail, foodservice and further-processed produce.

For the grower-owned business, the structure provided access to the partner's scale, technology, investment and market relationships without requiring the organisation to relinquish ownership of its core assets or its established identity.
For the strategic partner, the transaction increased the scale of its produce offering, broadened its product and customer mix and provided entry into complementary market segments.

Importantly, the structure enabled both businesses to realise many of the strategic benefits normally associated with consolidation while retaining the characteristics that mattered to their respective stakeholders.

Eastwood Anglo Perspective
This transaction illustrates an important principle in owner-managed and agricultural businesses: a sale is not always the only route to achieving scale.

Well-structured joint ventures and strategic partnerships can provide access to new markets, operational capability and investment while allowing shareholders, members or families to retain ownership of important assets and preserve the legacy of the business.
Eastwood Anglo brings together hands-on transaction experience and an understanding of the particular commercial, ownership and stakeholder considerations that arise in family-owned and agricultural businesses.