Companies join forces to create £35m-turnover school catering group

School catering company Cucina Restaurants has joined forces with rival Innovate Services to create one of the UK’s largest specialist school catering groups.

The new £35m-turnover business, The Impact Food Group (IFG), was set up with investment and support from Bridges Fund Management, which acquired a majority stake in Innovate Services Ltd for £8.5m earlier this year.

IFG will provide healthy, restaurant-quality food to almost 200 primary and secondary schools in England.

Its goal, the firm said, is to become a best-in-class operator with strong potential for future growth in a market worth more than £2bn in the UK alone.

Steve Quinn, founder of Wakefield-based Cucina, said: “We truly believe that in Bridges we have found an organisation that shares Cucina’s simple business philosophy of serving as many children as possible restaurant-quality food, coupled with an unwavering belief that students who eat healthier food perform better and therefore do better in life.

“With the growth of Multi Academy Trusts, Bridges are ideally placed to ensure we can continue to cater for the increasingly varied education marketplace.”

Emma Thorne, investment director at Bridges Fund Management, commented: “We are delighted to welcome Cucina into the newly-formed Impact Food Group.

“The combination of Cucina and Innovate creates a truly differentiated approach to school catering, based on restaurant-quality food.”

She continued: “We are looking forward to building out the business across the UK in the coming years, drawing on our extensive experience of roll-out strategies, and we’re excited about the impact this could have on the lives of thousands of children.”