LONDON: The owner of Quorn, the meat-free food producer, is to kick off a £500m auction of the business that will cement its status as one of Britain’s biggest home-grown consumer brands.
Sky News understands that advisers to Exponent Private Equity will next week issue detailed information about Quorn to prospective buyers.
The process is expected to focus in its initial stages on other financial investors, with earlier approaches from rival food companies such as WhiteWave of the US failing to persuade Exponent to sell Quorn on a preemptive basis.
City sources named the private equity groups BC Partners, Cinven and KKR as possible buyers, although it is unclear whether any of those firms will pursue takeover bids.
Bankers at Perella Weinberg Partners and Houlihan Lokey, both US-based firms, will lead the auction of Quorn, with preliminary bids due in October.
Exponent, which has owned Quorn since 2011, could also consider a stock market listing for the business, although this is less likely than an outright sale.
Based in North Yorkshire, Quorn has capitalised on growing consumer demand in some western markets for diets containing less red meat amid public health statistics highlighting an explosion in levels of obesity.
In January this year, the company published figures showing that sales had risen by 7% in 2014 to £150m, bucking a trend of flat sales performances from many competitors.
Quorn’s stronger sales were due in part to a deal with Wal-Mart, the world’s largest retailer, which now stocks its products in more than 2,000 stores.
The horsemeat scandal in 2013 stoked concerns about food provenance, boosting the manufacturers of non-meat ranges, while Quorn’s foothold in the US market may appeal to prospective buyers such as WhiteWave and Pinnacle Foods.
WhiteWave is one of the biggest producers of plant-based foods, with brands such as Earthbound Farm, Silk and Alpro.
Alongside WhiteWave, Hain Celestial, which has acquired British brands such as The Covent Garden Soup Company, and Nestle, the Swiss giant which owns Kit-Kat and other confectionery products, are both likely to show interest in Quorn.
Quorn’s origins date back to the 1960s when the product was created by Lord Rank, a British industrialist, although the brand itself was created in 1985.
It has since had a string of owners, including Zeneca, the pharmaceuticals group, and Premier Foods, which sold the brand for £205m as it raised cash to stave off the threat of collapse.
