Spicy Delicacy on Menu As Family Offers Buyers a Chance to Savour Patak’s

The owner of curry sauce manufacturer Patak’s has put the business up for sale with a price tag of pounds 200 million, it was claimed yesterday.

Speculation about the future of the company has been mounting since it was announced that the controlling Pathak family had appointed investment bank Rothschild to review strategic options.

Chairman and chief executive Kirit Pathak, who runs the business with his wife Meena, is believed to be seeking either an equity partner or buyer to give it a distribution network and marketing capability to compete with rivals such as Premier Foods’ Sharwoods brand.

With the family known to be keen to remain with the business, a partial sale, as opposed to a complete disposal, is thought to be the most likely outcome of the Rothschild review.

Mr Pathak’s father Laxmishanker launched the business in 1957 in north London shortly after arriving in England from Kenya. He dropped the ‘h’ from the company name to make it easier to pronounce.

The company, which is expected to turn over more than pounds 70 million this financial year, employs about 650 staff, of whom about half work at its factory in Wigan, making curry sauces, pastes, chutney, breads and other products for the major UK supermarkets and under its own brand. Over the ten years, Patak’s has added new product capabilities by buying factories, including a frozen food plant in Dundee in 1997 and a chilled foods business in Bellshill, North Lanarkshire, in 2005.

Kirit Pathak, who joined the company in 1970, described growth over the past decade as a “remarkable success story. Our goal is to be world’s leading supplier of authentic Indian food and we have, therefore, felt it appropriate to retain Rothschild to assist us in reviewing how best to achieve these ambitions.”

(c) 2007 Birmingham Post; Birmingham (UK). Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.