Vision to parachute in new talent to revitalise Northern

The prospective new owner of Northern Foods’ speciality bread, chilled pastry, cakes and flour milling divisions is in negotiations with “several senior managers” in the food industry to help run the businesses.

Private equity firm Vision Capital snapped up the divisions last week in a £160M deal, which is expected to complete in January subject to shareholders’ approval.

Vision chief executive Julian Mash said: “We like to work with existing management, but we also want to appoint further help, so we’re talking to several senior managers at the moment.”

He declined to comment on rumours that Geest chief executive Gareth Voyle was in the frame.

Disentangling the businesses from Northern Foods would cause some short-term pain, he said. “There has been a lot of centralisation recently in terms of purchasing and other functions, so there is a lot of work for us to do to establish them as standalone businesses.”

The divisions, which represent 40% of Northern Foods’ sales, would take three to five years to turn around, he predicted.

While Vision had no track record in the food industry, it was confident that it would be able to deliver “transformational change”, insisted Mash. “In the first instance, we’re going to work with managers to complete a strategic review of what needs to be done. The challenges in each business are very different, so there won’t be one approach that fits all.”

Including the £51.2M generated from the sale of the company’s chilled distribution business NFT, the disposal programme has raised £211.2M: above many analysts’ expectations.

The proceeds will be used to help plug the pension deficit and invest in core pizza, biscuits, ready meals, sandwiches, salads and puddings divisions, said Northern Foods chief executive Pat O’Driscoll.