Clairfield advise the Unsworth family on their acquisition of Aimia Foods

Clairfield have advised the Unsworth Family on its acquisition of Aimia Foods Limited (“Aimia”), a market leading UK based food and drink company with a turnover of £120m. Aimia has been supported with facilities from HSBC and Beechbrook Capital to accelerate organic growth and enable investment to boost in-house manufacturing.

The acquisition means a return to ownership for the Unsworths, who founded the business in 1981. They ran and developed Aimia until its sale to Cott Corporation (“Cott”) in 2014. With a 40+ year heritage in the food and drink manufacturing industry, the Unsworth Family have extensive knowledge, experience and contacts to drive their ambitious plans.

Aimia is a diversified food and drink manufacturing business, selling through a variety of channels such as retail, vending, foodservice, cash & carry and online. It owns and partners an impressive portfolio of brands serving the UK retail channel, including Horlicks, Drink Me Chai, leading confectionary, and bubble tea brands, and serves the broader “out of home” channel with trade brands such as Milfresh, Café Nueva and Shmoo.

As part of the transaction, all of the current senior management team will remain in post, with Rob Unsworth joining as Chairman.

Clairfield were engaged by the Unsworth Family to explore the potential repurchase of Aimia and act as lead financial advisors during the process.

“I am delighted that once again Aimia has been bought back under family ownership. This is a special business we know very well which stands out in many ways from the competition. The business will remain headed by Paul Whitlow as MD and the leadership team will be unchanged. We will also continue to support the strategic direction of the business, which is driving growth through the manufacturing and sale of branded goods within the beverage category both in the UK and overseas.” said Rob Unsworth.

Gary Ecob, Partner at Clairfield, commented “I am delighted to have advised the Unsworth Family on their repurchase of Aimia. The Unsworths have an excellent reputation in the food and drink industry and with Rob’s extensive knowledge of the food and drink manufacturing sector, the business is well positioned to realise further growth in the future.”

The Unsworth Family were advised by Partner Gary Ecob, Director Toby Arrowsmith and Manager Liam Hadfield at Clairfield. Legal advice was provided to the Unsworth family by Jonathan Brown, Katy Oakes and Joseph Reade of Hill Dickinson with finance arranged with Andy Oates at HSBC and Paul Whitehouse at Beechbrook Capital. Mills and Reeve provided legal advice to HSBC, with Pinsents providing legal advice to Beechbrook Capital.

Andy Oates, Head of Corporate for West Midlands at HSBC commented, “At HSBC, we are long term supporters of both the sector and also owner managed businesses, so we were delighted to be given the opportunity to support Rob bring Aimia back into his family ownership. We are really excited about the future Aimia has in the market and look forward to partnering with Rob and the management team on that growth journey.”

Paul Whitehouse said “We are delighted to work alongside Clairfield and HSBC to support the Unsworth family in their acquisition of Aimia. From the outset we recognised that Aimia is a high-quality UK manufacturing business and a market leader in its key categories. The family and the management team have an impressive track record in building strong customer relationships and brands, and we look forward to seeing them develop the group further as a result of our investment”