Organic delivery company joins Aunt Bessie’s group

The William Jackson Food Group, best known as the company behind Aunt Bessie’s, acquired Abel & Cole yesterday for an unconfirmed £30m.

Since its humble beginnings in 1988, Keith Abel has grown the company to deliver groceries to 50,000 homes across the country every week.

Mr Abel said: “This is great news for us. We’re excited about the future.

“With our new partners, we have the security and stability we need to grow and flourish. By joining a family business, which respects and understands us, we can carry on delivering the best veg boxes imaginable to our wonderful customers.”

The William Jackson Food Group already owns four food businesses: Hazeldene salads, Parripak vegetables, Jackson’s Bakery and Aunt Bessie’s, best know for its frozen Yorkshire puddings and accompaniments. The group’s chief executive, Norman Soutar, said: “We are a 160-year-old family business with strong values and are delighted to be welcoming Abel & Cole, a business we have admired for many years, to our family.

“Abel & Cole has some exciting plans for the future and now they are part of the William Jackson Food Group we can provide support to help them realise their ambitions.”

The company declined to give details of the price, but Abel & Cole was put up for sale earlier in the year for around £30m. Its underlying profits for 2011 were £4.6m while turnover was £35m.

Abel & Cole employs 450 staff and is supplied by a network of 150 independent farmers and makers. Following the buyout, its management team will remain in place and the business will continue to be run autonomously.

Mr Cole founded the company with business partner Paul Cole after abandoning plans to train as a barrister. The pair, helped by friends and family, sold potatoes door to door before moving into organic vegetables.

The company emphasises ethical practices, fair trading and environmental friendliness in its work.

Having started as a family business more than 160 years ago, the William Jackson Food Group now employs almost 2,000 around the UK.

It was founded by William Jackson, the great-great-grandfather of the current chairman, Nicholas Oughtred.