Isara, a new investment company specialising in the food industry, has launched its debut fund totalling £300 million, with the aim of transforming UK food supply.
The Leeds-based investor says that it is ‘focused on improving the efficiency, quality and sustainability of food supply systems across the UK, Ireland and Western Europe’.
Isara plans to ‘invest in food production and distribution businesses, helping to stabilise and improve the current ecosystem undergoing structural shifts caused by rising inflation, the Covid-19 pandemic, Brexit, and a growing commitment to sustainability’.
The fund is backed by the Sadel Group, another Yorkshire-based firm which invests in the real estate, cold storage, and energy sectors.
Isara Partner Micheal Rice leads the company’s endeavour, having spent over a decade working with investments largely in the industries of food, logistics, and business services.
Rice believes funding is essential in maintaining food supply chains at the moment, stating: “We are on the cusp of a potential food crisis in the United Kingdom. We believe that existing food production and supply chains have become inherently inefficient, and are under unsustainable levels of strain from a number of factors including the coronavirus crisis, increasing energy costs, food inflation and financial market volatility.”
He continued: “At Isara, our fund will be used to champion increasing the efficiency and sustainability of food systems, seeking to address the challenges of long-term underinvestment, labour supply challenges, supply chain security and sustainability.”
