Top supplier of dried fruits and nuts receives a funding boost totalling £23m

A leading supplier of dried fruit, nuts and ingredients has secured a £6m facility increase from Praetura Commercial Finance Group to fuel growth with its key customers.

Community Foods, based in Witham, Essex, stocks globally-sourced natural and organic dried foods which it supplies to wholesalers, food producers and major supermarkets. The business has specialised in packaging and distributing branded products from dried fruits, nuts and seeds, cereals, pulses and rice since 1971.

The increased facility from Praetura follows the lender’s previous support for Community Foods, after providing a £17m funding facility in December 2023 to help the business enhance its 80,000 sq ft production and warehousing facility. Since then, the business has increased sales by 17% year-on-year and renewed contracts for all their major customers.

After only seven months into its three-year strategic investment plan, a very promising and encouraging start required an increased facility. Praetura have increased facilities to £23m, to ensure management can take advantage of the next phase of its growth plan. Community Foods will use the additional £6m backing to secure new supply lines for its products and further expand its product offering ahead of the peak seasonal trading periods throughout Christmas and Easter next year.

Martin Rome, managing director at Community Foods said: “Praetura have enabled us to seize a number of opportunities that have come our way this year which will have a significant impact on the business over the next couple of years. We are delighted that after a relatively short working relationship with them that they have been willing and able to support the business as they have.”

Stuart Bates, commercial director at Praetura Commercial Finance, said: “When we first met the board, we were struck by their passion and strategic vision, which has clearly driven their impressive growth in such a short time. It was an easy decision to extend our support for Martin and the team as they move quickly to seize on new opportunities and invest in driving growth.”

Community Foods were originally introduced by Richard Massing, director at Kingswood Corporate Finance. Legal advisors to Praetura were Squire Patton Boggs led by Claire Shepherd and legal advisors to the company were Gateley Plc led by Chris Jones.