£10m injection for Muscle Food

Muscle Food says it will use its investment from the Business Growth Fund (BGF) to set up a second base in Europe and develop the group's online platform to drive further growth.

Set up in 2013 by chief executive Darren Beale, Muscle Food sells premium lean meats, high-protein food and sports supplements. After attracting a loyal following of fitness enthusiasts, bodybuilders and athletes, the brand has been winning a broader customer base of health and cost-conscious eaters in the UK and Europe. Known as the 'Muscle Food tribe', fans include celebrities and sportspeople such as Jamie Lomas and Iwan Thomas.

It operates a 32,000 sq ft distribution centre in West Bromwich and has an office team based in Nottinghamshire.

Muscle Food's own-brand foods – mostly meats, seafood, eggs and snacks – and 'Live Clean' meal boxes have been delivered to over half a million homes across Britain. The company recent starting exporting to Europe and sales reached £45m in the 12 months to the end of March last year, up from £14m in 2015.

Earlier this year, Muscle Food began selling its range of products – including Protein Pizza, the UK's fifth largest pizza brand – in Sainsbury's and will be launching in Morrisons this month.

Investment group BGF, which has backed close to 200 companies in the UK & Ireland, has taken a minority equity stake in the group. Other companies backed by BGF include Victoria Carpets in Kidderminster, Kingswinford hi-tech theme park ride firm Simworx and Brownhills Glass.

Darren Beale said: "The Muscle Food team care passionately about making it easier for our tribe of customers to achieve their fitness and health goals – this mission has been critical in driving the expansion of the company.

"The partnership with BGF will help us accelerate our growth and switch even more customers on to our unique proposition."

Greg Norman, from BGF said: "The Muscle Food team are talented, focused and passionate. They have successfully managed the high-growth experienced in the last three years and are ambitious about accelerating the expansion. We are pleased to be supporting the group as it continues to scale."

GCA Altium provided corporate finance advice to the management team on the transaction.

Simon Lord, managing director at global investment bank GCA Altium, said: "Muscle Food has grown rapidly since inception to become an extremely profitable and highly cash generative business which is relatively unheard of in high growth businesses like this. It operates in a sector that has raised vast sums in the UK and US and it has been a real pleasure to have advised the founders and shareholders on its first external equity investment by BGF."