SME investor completes acquisition of Nottingham pet food business

Enact, the SME investor managed by Leeds-based Endless LLP, has acquired Kennelpak Limited, a pet food supplier.

Kennelpak, headquartered in Nottingham, is a wholesale supplier of own brand and third party branded pet food and associated pet products.

The company, which has its own retail chain under the Kennelgate brand, employs 275 permanent and temporary staff.

Kennelpak retails a selection of pet food, pet accessories and toys amongst other products for dogs, cats, birds, aquatics, reptiles, horses and home farming.

For the year ending March 2017, Kennelpak reported a turnover of over £23m.

Chris Cormack, the investment director who lead the transaction for Enact, said: “The business is well positioned in a growing sector and we believe that Kennelpak is an exciting platform from which we can drive accelerated growth.

“We will be introducing a new Non-Executive Chairman and CEO with the relevant experience to support this strategy.”

Chris Peck, who is joining the board as non-executive chairman, commented: “I’m delighted to be joining Kennelpak at this point in its journey, alongside Enact. We believe we have invested in a good business and brand which will benefit from additional investment and scale.”

Mr Peck was formerly chairman at West Cornwall Pasty Company, an Enact investment that was sold to Samworth Brothers in December 2016.

Mr Cormack added: “The acquisition of Kennelpak is the third investment by Enact in 2017, following investments in Arran Aromatics and Theo Fennell in recent months. We remain committed to identifying opportunities in the lower mid-market, targeting transactions that require investment of up to £5m.

“We continue to see a number of opportunities nationally and following on from the announcement of Richard Harrison’s role in targeting Enact opportunities in the North West we are now looking to recruit dedicated Enact deal origination resource in London to enhance our national offering.”

Mr Cormack was assisted by Paul Denvers from Enact. Simon Pilling and James Cook from Bond Dickinson provided legal advice with Russ Cahill providing tax advice.

KPMG assisted Enact with financial due diligence. Karen Edwards of Clearwater International acted as advisor to Kennelpak and its shareholders.