{"id":1853,"date":"2018-09-04T19:17:24","date_gmt":"2018-09-04T19:17:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/gluten-free-family-bakery-ultrapharm-sold-in-25m-deal\/"},"modified":"2018-09-04T19:17:24","modified_gmt":"2018-09-04T19:17:24","slug":"gluten-free-family-bakery-ultrapharm-sold-in-25m-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/gluten-free-family-bakery-ultrapharm-sold-in-25m-deal\/","title":{"rendered":"Gluten-free family bakery Ultrapharm sold in \u00a325m deal"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\"Gluten-freeImage copyright<\/span>
\n Getty Images<\/span><\/p>\n

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Image caption<\/span>
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\n Gluten is a general name for the proteins found in wheat, barley and rye.
\n <\/span>
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A Pontypool family gluten-free bakery firm has been sold to a Cardiff company in a deal potentially worth \u00a325m. <\/p>\n

The Lewis family – who are Ultrapharm’s shareholders – will receive \u00a317m, and potentially a further \u00a38m, depending on its financial performance until 2021. <\/p>\n

The sale comes as the rapid rise in the “free from” food market continues – it is estimated 1.3m people in the UK now follow a gluten-free diet. <\/p>\n

Buyer Finsbury Food Group said it was diversifying into a high-growth market.<\/p>\n

Ultrapharm was founded in 1993 in Pontypool and employs more than 240 staff across sites in the UK and Poland. <\/p>\n

AIM-listed Finsbury Food Group manufactures cake and breads, supplying shops, cafes and restaurants, and has been one of Ultrapharm’s clients. <\/p>\n

Ultrapharm chief executive Marc Lewis is staying on with Finsbury Food as part of the deal. <\/p>\n

The charity Coeliac UK estimates that 1.3m people in the UK have a gluten-free diet, including many who have other medical conditions such as irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and non-coeliac gluten sensitivity.<\/p>\n

Food and drink analyst Alice Baker from market research company Mintel said the rise of gluten-free products is part of the growing popularity of “free from” products.<\/p>\n

“A number of factors including media buzz, celebrity endorsement of exclusion diets, increased distribution and visibility [in shops] and sustained product development… have all contributed to robust underlying growth,” she said.<\/p>\n

Other Welsh manufacturers of “free from” products include Welsh Hills bakery in Aberdare, Rhondda Cynon Taf and Brighter Foods in Tywyn, Gwynedd.<\/p>\n

John Duffy, chief executive of Finsbury Food Group, said the sale gave “a further foothold in Europe and allowing us to diversify into the ‘free from’ market”.<\/p>\n

Ultrapharm’s sales were \u00a319.5m in 2017, up from \u00a314.5m in the previous year. Its profit before tax last year was \u00a3800,000.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n


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Source<\/a> by [author_name]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Gluten is a general name for the proteins found in wheat, barley and rye. A Pontypool family gluten-free bakery firm has been sold to a Cardiff company in a deal potentially worth \u00a325m. The Lewis family – who are Ultrapharm’s shareholders – will receive \u00a317m, and potentially a further … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":1854,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1853","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1853","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1853"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1853\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1854"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1853"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1853"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}