Upmarket DTC butcher Farmison & Co has been broken up, following the sale of its brand identity as well as Ripon processing plant and shop, The Grocer can reveal.
Farmison & Co’s website, intellectual property and existing contracts have been acquired by Scottish DTC butcher Donald Russell, which will move Farmison’s craft butchery and DTC operation to Inverurie in Scotland.
Meanwhile, in a separate but coinciding sale, Farmison Ltd’s meat processing site and shop in Ripon, North Yorkshire have been sold to GPS Food Group subsidiary Febripa holdings, and will now operate as Ripon Foods.
Farmison & Co chairman, the former Asda CEO Andy Clarke – who led a consortium to buy the embattled butcher out of administration in April 2023 – will remain with Ripon Foods, alongside Farmison CEO Andy Adcock and finance director Alan Pater.
The financial details for both deals – which were completed earlier this month – remain undisclosed. No jobs are expected to be lost as a result of either deal.
The sales mark the latest twist in a turbulent few years for Farmison, which was co-founded in 2011 by John Pallagi and Lee Simmons with the vision of getting British consumers to “eat better meat” by working with local suppliers and heritage breeds.
It rode high during the Covid-19 pandemic, with sales doubling to £12.1m during 2020. However, the business struggled to adapt as online demand stabilised and it collapsed into administration in 2023.
Clarke acquired Farmison as part of a consortium which also included Manchester-based Chilli Marketing’s Gareth Whittle, Christian Barton and Kieron Barton.
Their revival plan focused on sourcing more heritage cuts, as well as increasing revenue by supplying direct to retailers including Booths, Whole Foods and Harrods. However, the business was ordered to pay Pallagi £115,000 over unfair dismissal following his exit from the business, in September 2024. Latest accounts show it fell to a £2.4m loss in 2024.
Creation of one of the UK’s largest premium meat businesses
The consolidation of Farmison and Donald Russell had created “one of the largest DTC businesses in the premium meat space”, said Donald Russell CEO Ken Clow, confirming the acquisition to The Grocer.
The Aberdeenshire-based butcher – which has held a royal warrant for over 40 years – specialises in premium frozen cuts. It’s owned by the Vestey family, who formerly owned Britain’s largest butchery chain Dewhurst before its collapse in the nineties.
“Farmison is a business we have admired for a long time,” Clow told The Grocer. “Very much like us, they’re focused on craft and quality and there’s lots of brilliant synergies between the two brands.”
Donald Russell intended to continue to work with Farmison’s existing suppliers, many of whom already supply Donald Russell, Clow said.
“It’s absolutely going to remain as Farmison, we see the two brands as complementary.”
A spokesperson for GPS Food Group said: “The Farmison & Co brand has been sold to Donald Russell, who are well known and established industry leaders in premium meats delivered direct to customers.
“The factory facility at Ripon will continue to operate as a food processing facility supported by the existing staff and management team under the ownership of GPS Food Group.”
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