Sell my Food business

I want to sell my food and catering business

If you are considering selling your food business and wish to plan an exit, realise returns from your investment and maximise sale value, we can help find a buyer for your food service business. A common reason business owners end ownership is due to retirement, health vulnerabilities, market competition, Covid-19 trading challenges or to redirect efforts to other business interests. Selling your business is a cost-efficient way to pass on ownership to an interested buyer and generate a tangible return.

There are many types of companies in the food sector providing services to a range of customers with different appetites and culinary expectations. The Selling My Business team are familiar with selling a whole range of food businesses, from fish and chip shops, village tearooms and hospitality catering businesses. Founded over 60 years’ ago, we are highly experienced in the sale of the following food businesses and more:

 

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• Previous sales and acquisitions experience
• Sector specialisms and average success rate
• Sales value expectations and growth potential

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The sale process consists of multiple stages, from preparing your business for sale, conducting a business valuation and sourcing a suitable buyer. A business transfer agent can provide the necessary guidance throughout each stage, from marketing your business to thousands of verified buyers, carrying out due diligence and negotiating a competitive sale price.

At Selling My Business, we have an extensive team of business sale and acquisition experts equipped with industry knowledge and vast sector experience to source a buyer for your food business. We have a variety case studies which explore common challenges experienced when directing the sale of cafes, sandwich bars and takeaways, including how to overcome this. Using a business transfer agent highly familiar with the food service trade can open the door to a host of prospective buyers, speeding up the sale process.

The food sector is highly congested with profitable entities, from franchise diners, dessert parlours and fast-food outlets, to independently operated cafes, sandwich bars and coffee shops. By showcasing the unique selling points of your business, you can attract buyers and highlight what makes your shop front stand out. Business resilience, financial health and adapting to gastronomic trends, if your service offering allows, can increase marketing value, heightening your chances of a successful sale.

Selling my food business

As with customer-facing sectors, there are a host of challenges and opportunities facing the food sector and business owners in this arena.

• Supporting local ecosystems: At the height of Brexit negotiations, the UK’s reliance on imported food stock from European Union countries entered the spotlight, illustrating the heightened threat to product availability. This provided an opportunity to British farmers, and suppliers of homegrown raw goods to showcase their services on a mass scale to mainstream consumers.  As this increased awareness around the associated benefits of using locally sourced ingredients and supporting the local food ecosystem, leading supermarkets expanded their supplier list to include locally sourced products.  
• Embracing current trends: As social media provides a window into global cuisines, the rise in culinary tourism and the globalisation of the British food industry has transformed consumer expectations. By embracing trends and incorporating this into your service offering, you can create more opportunities for cultured culinary thinkers. 

Photogenic food promoted through the likes of Instagram shows how visual inspiration can help drive consumers to the dinner table. The power of feedback through social media is also a driving force which has the authority to popularise dishes and drive demand, inviting smaller food businesses to advertise through Instagram.

• Covid-19 public health guidance: The food industry is closely regulated to ensure that businesses meet the necessary benchmarks, such as food hygiene standards established by the Food Standards Agency. In response to the coronavirus pandemic, food businesses are required to comply with social distancing measures which reduces diner capacity and impacts daily takings.
• Corporate social responsibility: As public perception plays a large factor in earning customer loyalty, contributing on a social level and investing in your local community can help establish a strong reputation, build credibility and humanise the business. Food businesses can support communities by conducting no waste campaigns, supporting local food banks and delivering food to those most in need.
• Service development and business expansion: The food service sector consists of a host of business growth opportunities dependent on your end goals, such as income generation, brand exposure or regional expansion. If your food service business relies on local custom, attending annual food markets and trade shows can help establish your brand and build customer loyalty.

Hosting training events is an innovative and low maintenance method through which you can generate fast income, increase brand credibility and strengthen reputation. Taking the mobile catering route can also help you increase your service offering to cater to the hospitality and events sector.

By detailing expansion opportunities, prospective buyers can gauge growth potential and assess future value. By sharing your own experience and preparing to answer questions relating to the challenges experienced by the business, you can ensure that your interactions with prospective buyers are informative and transparent.

Preparing your food business for sale

The first step to selling your food business is to prepare it for sale by ensuring that your accounting and financial records are in order, business operations are streamlined, and expenditure is regularly reviewed to maintain low overheads. Prospective buyers conduct extensive due diligence to gain knowledge of the owner’s history, so it is vital to prepare yourself to present an overview on the financial health of the business, guided by your business transfer agent. 

How much is my food business worth?

The preparation stage is instrumental to your business valuation as a strongly orchestrated business with steady cash flow, a robust operational structure and healthy balance sheet are likely to hold more financial value than a poorly managed business. If your business is in financial difficulty, your financial reports will illustrate this, affecting the final sale price. Valuing a food business, such as a café, take away or fish and chip shop consists of assessing the worth of company assets, inventory, retained profits and overall financial performance.

Value my food business

We offer a food business valuation to help you determine the monetary worth and establish an asking price which achieves market value. We have an in-house valuation team made up of expert food business valuers who will take you through how to value a food business.  To conduct a business valuation, we required three years’ worth of recent/historic accounts. The SMB team have over 100 years’ collective experience, so we can share our industry experience and our understanding of what prospective buyers deem important during the business discovery process.

Impact of coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) on food businesses

If your business is struggling to recover from the financial pressures presented by the coronavirus pandemic, you may consider selling your business as an alternative to company liquidation. As stores experience temporary closure and a reduction in operational hours due to Covid-19 lockdown restrictions, food businesses across the country are carrying the burden of mounting liabilities and creditor pressure. If you are considering selling shop due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Selling My Business team can help attract serious owners and facilitate the sale of your business.

How to sell my food and catering business?

If you are deciding how to start your journey to selling your food business, the three most common routes are using a business transfer agent, broker or seeking a buyer independently. Breaking down the core pros and cons, we share our understanding of each route:

• Business transfer agent – An experienced business transfer agent with strong roots in the industry will offer more than a business valuation and guidance throughout the business preparation stages. As a veteran business transfer agent, the Selling My Business team are experienced in a multitude of sectors, boasting an extensive track record of successful sales and a database of over 10,000 actively searching buyers

• Business sale broker – A broker is essentially a middleman acting on behalf of the seller and marketing the business directly to buyers, through a variety of websites and confidential advertising platforms. As the broker will typically be paid commission, the overall cost will reflect this.

• Independent – This route consists of preparing the business for sale, sourcing a buyer and negotiating a sale independently, making it appropriate for select business sellers only.

The Selling My Business team are specialists in the sale of food businesses, from cornerstone village tearooms, your local chippy to family-owned sandwich bars and cafes.