Vibrant Foods

The deal

The teams

The story

Vibrant Foods is the leading producer and distributor of South Asian foods in the UK and across continental Europe. The business produces a range of pulses, spices, flours and other Indian food ingredients which are sold under the Vibrant Food brand primarily through independent South Asian stores as well as the supermarket channel. The group is made up of the TRS, East End Foods, Cofresh, Everest Dairies and Fudco brands.

The company was formed by Exponent through the acquisition of TRS and East End Foods, which had been owned by their founding families (the Suterwallas and Wouhras, respectively) since the 1960s. As the founding family managers were looking to retire post transaction, Exponent brought in an entirely new management team – led by Chairperson Rohit Samani and CEO Umesh Parmar – with extensive experience in South Asian foods manufacturing and distribution.

We were attracted to TRS & East End Foods due to their strong brand and loyal consumer following, the favourable growth dynamics in ethnic foods consumption across the UK and continental Europe, the potential to invest behind the brands in both marketing and new product development as well as the opportunity to drive consolidation of the fragmented South Asian foods market.