KPMG seeks buyers for Australia’s biggest artisanal baker

afr.com:

Sydney private equity firm Next Capital is ready to take artisanal bread maker Noisette out of the oven.

Next Capital has owned a controlling stake in Noisette since 2017.  

Street Talk can reveal Next Capital has called in KPMG Corporate Finance partner, Nic Combes, to find a new owner for Noisette. The business supplies baked products (such as its signature chocolate torsade), brioches, cakes, macarons, croissants and the like from manufacturing facilities in Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne to cafés, hotels, restaurants and supermarkets. It also runs cafés of its own in Port Melbourne, Kew and Bentleigh.

The process is under way and first round offers were submitted to KPMG last week, sources said. Rival buyout firms and trade buyers have been targeted as part of the two-tranche auction.

Next Capital acquired a majority stake in the business from fifth-generation baker, David Menard, and his co-owner Gary Geremia in 2017, and within six months had bolted on the makers of one of Sydney’s favourite loaves (and cafes), Brasserie Bread. KPMG also advised Next on its initial investment into Noisette.

Menard and Geremia own about 19 per cent each of Melbourne-based business, while Next Capital is the largest shareholder with about 60 per cent ownership of Noisette’s parent company, Artisanal Holdings Pty Ltd.

The business, founded in 2006, has grown to become Australia’s biggest artisanal baker with 627 employees and $113.3 million in gross assets at June 30, 2022, according to the most recent accounts filed with ASIC. It sold $76.8 million worth of bakery goods during the 12 months, up from $60.7 million the year before.

However, prospective acquirers told Street Talk that the 2023 financial year saw sales bounce back to in