- Business
- Bakkavor Group plc manufactures and supplies fresh prepared foods to leading grocery retailers and foodservice operators. The company offers a portfolio of approximately 3,500 products including ready meals, pizza and bread, salads and desserts, soups and sauces, dips and spreads, food-to-go items such as sandwiches and wraps, fresh cut fruits and vegetables, bakery products, pastries, ethnic snacks, stir fries, smoothies, and dressings; in the US it provides fresh-made meals including single-serve and family-size entrees, artisanal breads, hummus, burritos, and Fresh & Simple branded items. Bakkavor Group plc operates 43 manufacturing sites across the United Kingdom, United States, and China, serving major customers such as Tesco, Marks & Spencer, Sainsbury's, and Waitrose in the UK, national and regional retailers plus direct-to-consumer channels in the US, and international food brands in China.
Founded in 1986 in Iceland by brothers Agust and Lydur Gudmundsson as a seafood exporter before expanding into fresh prepared foods, Bakkavor Group plc is headquartered in London, England, with its ordinary shares listed on the London Stock Exchange under the ticker BAKK.
In recent developments, the company completed the disposal of its China bakery business in March 2024 for a net profit and agreed to the sale of its Hong Kong operations in December 2024, expected to complete in April 2025, simplifying its China footprint to mainland operations only; it closed its loss-making Wigan site in the UK by early 2025, incurring exceptional costs of GBP20.8 million while transferring higher-margin volumes to other facilities. Bakkavor refinanced its core debt facilities in July 2024 with GBP350 million in new revolving credit and term loans maturing in 2028 at improved margins, reducing leverage to 1.1 times; it launched over 150 new products in 2024, including innovations under the Fresh & Simple brand in the US, and commenced a multi-year GBP40 million UK ERP system replacement project.
As of late 2025, Bakkavor faces a recommended acquisition by Greencore Group plc at a GBP1.2 billion enterprise value, agreed in May 2025 and pending shareholder and regulatory approvals including UK Competition and Markets Authority consultation, which would create a combined entity with approximately GBP4 billion in annual revenues specializing in convenience foods.