Wholesale group Kitwave has boosted revenues and profits on the back of acquisitions and rebounding trade after the pandemic.
The North Shields-based business said the purchase of Devon wholesaler M.J. Baker Foodservice Limited in early 2022 and a strong performance within its foodservice division - which supplies to pubs and restaurants and where revenues more than doubled - led to results in line with upgraded expectations. In its first full year of trading since listing on AIM in 2021, Kitwave posted a 32% rise in revenue to £503.1m and a rise in adjusted operating profit from £7.1m to £21.5m.
During the year to the end of October, the firm, which specialises in selling snacks, alcohol and frozen good to more than 40,000 independent businesses, opened a 60,000 sqft distribution centre in Wakefield which also serves as a head office for the group's HB Clark alcohol wholesale business. Kitwave told investors the move had created efficiencies that allowed the foodservice division to grow.
