NWF, the UK’s second biggest supplier of ruminant animal feed, has bought competitor SC Feeds for up to £6.75m (€8 million), with the final figure to be decided early next year.
SC Feeds produces more than 80,000t of compound and blended feed a year, and had assets of £1.25m (€1.49m) and profits before tax of £760,000 (€907,000) in the year ending 30 April 2013. NWF supplies more than 4,000 UK farmers with 481,000t of feed a year, has assets worth £58m and reported profits of £9.7m (€11.5m) in the year ending 31 May 2013. The company also distributes groceries and fuel.
Starting as a farmers’ group in 1871 and then becoming a co-operative, NWF became a limited company in 1988. It feeds one in seven dairy cows in Britain while SC Feeds has supplied ruminant feed since 1991 from its mill in Stone.