Kitwave acquires Total Foodservice for £21 million

Kitwave Group has acquired Total Foodservice Solutions for £21 million.

Established over 130 years ago, Total Foodservice offers around 4,000 product lines including chilled, frozen and ambient food, non-food and cleaning products.

The wholesaler’s depots are located in Clitheroe, Lancashire, and Huddersfield, Yorkshire, and its customers include the licensed trade, restaurants, coffee shops, sandwich bars, schools, universities and the care industry across the North of England.

For the financial year ended 30 April 2023, Total Foodservice reported a turnover of £25.4 million and profit before tax of £2 million. The acquired balance sheet includes around £4 million of cash, and freehold property with a book value of £2.1 million.

Total Foodservice will be incorporated into Kitwave’s existing Foodservice division, which currently comprises the trading operations of David Miller Frozen Foods, MJ Baker Foodservice, Westcountry Food Holdings and HB Clark & Co.

Commenting on the acquisition, Kitwave’s CEO Ben Maxted said: “We are delighted to announce the acquisition of Total Foodservice, which is a one-stop shop for wholesale commercial catering supplies and enables us to further expand our product range offering across the North of England and in particular Yorkshire and the North West, complementing our existing foodservice offering.

“Total Foodservice is a well-established business in the catering industry and we look forward to welcoming its team to Kitwave and integrating the business into our Foodservice division.

“This acquisition is in line with Kitwave’s growth strategy, and we will continue to seek to identify further opportunities in the UK’s highly fragmented wholesale market to deliver further value to the group and its shareholders.”