KBS Corporate serves up sale of award-winning Worcestershire catering firm

By Peter Davison

9 June 2023

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Sprint Group

Award-winning catering services provider Sprint Group has been sold to a private equity-backed competitor in a deal overseen by KBS Corporate.

Worcestershire-based Sprint Refrigeration & Catering Ltd, founded in 1994 by David Ryan, designs, installs and maintains commercial kitchens and food servery counters, working with the hospitality industry as well as schools, hospitals and care homes.

Among its clients are well-known brands including Burger King, Giraffe, The Ivy Asia and Bill’s, with Sprint having been honoured on multiple occasions at the Foodservice Equipment Journal Awards and the Catering Insight Awards.

With the help of KBS Corporate Director Tom Eatough, Sprint, which is the trading name of Ryan Brothers Holdings Ltd, has been acquired by Bradford-based Airedale Group – backed by private equity investor Rubicon Partners – in a highly strategic investment.

Luke and Ross Ryan will continue to head up Sprint, with the Airedale Group having renewed the lease at the company’s head office in Pershore for 10 more years.

“This is a great opportunity to build on everything that has been achieved by the Sprint team,” said Ross Ryan.

“The support and investment available as part of the Airedale Group will help to deliver our growth plans and see the business fulfil its potential.

“After extensive discussions over many months with the Airedale team it became clear the two businesses have similar priorities and values, especially with respect to customer focus and a dedication to delivering exceptional results.

“We were also struck by their approach to businesses that had previously joined the Airedale platform, particularly the retention of both culture and identity.

"We are convinced Sprint’s growth will only accelerate as a result of group synergies and the investment available.”

Rob Bywell, Airedale Group CEO, added: “With this acquisition, Airedale Group are demonstrating a continued commitment to broadening our offering, and to investing in unique propositions for the hospitality and food service sector.”

By Peter Davison

Peter Davison is deputy editor of The Business Magazine. He has spent his life in journalism – doing work experience in newsrooms in and around Bristol while still at school, and landing his first job on a local newspaper aged 19. By 28 he was the youngest newspaper editor in the country.

An early advocate of online news, he spent the first years of the 2000s telling his bosses that the internet posed both the biggest opportunity and greatest threat to the newspaper industry and the art of journalism. He was right on both counts.

Since 2006 he has enjoyed a career as a freelance journalist. He lives in rural Wiltshire with one wife, two children, and three cats.