Newcastle-based CRL Foods, a specialist food and beverage canning, sterilisation and pasteurisation business, has secured a £1 million investment from NPIF II – Maven Equity Finance, which is managed by Maven as part of the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund II (“NPIF II”).
Mincoffs Solicitors provided legal support to Maven throughout the transaction.
CRL is a food and beverage producer that utilises market-leading in-house patented technology to sterilise, pasteurise and package food and drinks on behalf of household names such as Marks & Spencer, Greggs and Co-Op.
The circular retort system is particularly suited to canned cold brew coffee and canned protein drinks that contain milk.
Maven originally invested in CRL Foods in 2021 and 2022 via the North East Development Capital Fund.
This enabled the business to expand its team, invest in new equipment to add additional production lines to its growing factory and increase capacity.
Today’s transaction will allow CRL to scale rapidly and enable the business to deliver significantly higher volumes following a number of exciting new contract wins.
With consumer’s preferences shifting towards convenience and healthy living, demand is driving more products towards recyclable packaging and ambient storage due to the reductions in food and packaging waste that this provides.
CRL are developing new and improved ways to process and pack high-quality, long shelf-life products, using patented technologies to help secure a future for applied food technologies in UK.
Gareth Phillips, MD of CRL Foods, said: “At CRL, we are on a mission to improve the quality and sustainability of thermally processed food and beverage products in the UK, and ultimately worldwide, by providing innovative and value-added contract manufacturing solutions.
“We are delighted to have Maven’s continued support with this latest round of growth capital funding to accelerate our progress towards these goals.”
David Nixon, senior investment manager at Maven said: “CRL is a growing business that has utilised its unique manufacturing processes to develop a strong order book from high-quality customers since we first supported the firm back in 2021.
“The company is well positioned to support increasing consumer demand for healthy and sustainable food and drink, and they have achieved impressive year on year growth to date.
“The team has many years’ experience within the food and beverage industries, and we’re delighted to support them at such a pivotal point in the company’s development.”
Sarah Newbould, senior investment manager at the British Business Bank said: “NPIF II is driving innovation across the North and its recent investment in CRL Foods exemplifies this commitment.
“This investment demonstrates how the Fund supports a broad range of industries to drive technological advancement and boost growth across the regional economy.”
Chris Hughes, corporate partner at Mincoffs, said: “It was our pleasure to advise Maven on the Fund’s seven figure investment into CRL Foods.
“This latest funding has the potential to be transformative for CRL, increasing the numbers it is able to deliver and helping to team to continue its impressive year-on-year growth.
“We look forward to following CRL as it continues to scale and supporting Maven on future investments.”
The £660m Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund II (NPIFII) covers the entire North of England and provides loans from £25k to £2m and equity investment up to £5m to help a range of small and medium sized businesses to start up, scale up or stay ahead.
The purpose of the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund II is to drive sustainable economic growth by supporting innovation and creating local opportunity for new and growing businesses across the North of England.
The Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund II will increase the supply and diversity of early-stage finance for the North’s smaller businesses, providing funds to firms that might otherwise not receive investment and help to break down barriers in access to finance.
