My Food Bag considers selling the business, publicly listing on NZX

Thursday, 1 October 2020

My Food Bag is considering the prospect of selling the company or listing it publicly, after a strong year in sales.

Its chief executive Kevin Bowler said My Food Bag was keeping an “open mind” on its ownership model and was consulting with PWC on the future of the company.

“We’re in the early stages of considering our options. All we’ve done is appointed an adviser to see if we’re ready to proceed with and initial public offering or selling the business,” Bowler said.

“We’ve been improving the business in every sense over the last three to four years.”

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My Food Bag’s earnings were about $25 million a year.

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My Food Bag chief executive Kevin Bowler says My Food Bag was considering its options, and selling it might be one of them.

My Food Bag’s earnings were about $25 million a year, Bowler said.

“We’ve seen an acceleration of people wanting to buy food online. In the last 10 months we’ve seen what we would have over two or three years. We’ve seen a substantial amount of growth.”

The Covid-19 lockdowns had helped boost the company’s growth by 20 per cent year-on-year.

Co-founders Cecilia Robinson, James Robinson and Theresa Gattung each held about 11 per cent stake in the company, while Nadia Lim and her husband Carlos Bagrie each held about 5.4 per cent stake.

But Auckland-based investor Waterman Fund was the majority shareholder, holding a 70 per cent stake in the company.

In 2018, co-founder Robinson said the decision to list My Food Bag on the NZX was part of a three-year plan made in 2016, following the investment from Auckland-based Waterman Capital.