Karro

THE OPPORTUNITY

Headquartered in Malton, North Yorkshire, Karro Food Group is one of the leading suppliers of pork products into the retail and foodservice market. With a workforce of over 3,100 people and with turnover in excess of £550 million, Karro operates from six sites across England, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Its reputation for high welfare pork produce was forged through its commitment to breeding its own pigs at its farm in Brydock, Scotland as well as sourcing from farmers local to its various operations.

THE SOLUTION

Endless acquired Karro in January 2013 from Vion Food Group. Endless’ reputation for delivering complex transactions quickly, simply and without the need for third party debt provided the parent company with the exit solution it was looking for. Despite tough economic and market conditions at that time combined with increasing raw material prices, Endless committed significant funds and resource to support the management team to transition Karro into a stronger, standalone and agile pork business. 

During our period of ownership, we supported the investment of over £45m in automation and capacity improvement projects. The business now has a blue chip customer base in the UK focused on British Pork, an established antibiotic free export business to the USA, as well as increasing export sales to China.

THE IMPACT

Karro is now established as a key strategic player in the sector and through operational and commercial focus has delivered EBITDA run-rate improvements of over £40 million per annum compared to the position at acquisition. This continuing success has brought security to the workforce, suppliers and customers and created the confidence for key stakeholders to grow long-term strategic partnerships with the business.

In May 2017 we sold the business to CapVest Partners LLP, who subsequently have built on this performance again.  At the time, this delivered the largest value investment return in our history.