May 20, 2020

By Lynda Kiernan

A new entity led by representatives of U.S.-based Artemis Growth Partners has acquired Bridge Farm Group, the UK’s leading producer of herbs, produce, flowers, and plants, and one of the world’s largest horticultural companies, through a deal valued at $105 million.

This M&A transaction reflects the largest sponsor-driven European deal in history for cannabis and cannabis-related companies, as well as the largest M&A deal to-date in 2020 for the European horticulture and farming industry. 

“Bridge Farm is a forward-thinking, large scale producer of commercial horticultural produce that has been operating for over 30 years and is led by a proven and award-winning management team,” said David Ball, operating partner and senior advisor, Artemis Growth Partners. “I am delighted that we could close a transaction involving a business that I have known and run as a former CEO, and will now oversee at Artemis as an investment in our portfolio.”

The divestment of Bridge Group to Artemis Growth follows previous announcements by Sundial of its intentions to sell the company as part of its strategic plan to reduce debt and restructure its balance sheet. But for Artemis, the deal expands the group’s European and global portfolio, and represents a major commitment to the emerging cannabis market in the UK.

“Bridge Farm is the low-cost cultivation platform in the UK for cannabis with over 2 million square feet of the most technologically advanced, automated glasshouse production in all of Europe,” said Ball. “We see Bridge Farm as the cornerstone of a vertically integrated global producer of cannabis and other medicinal botanicals with future offerings ranging from cannabis flower and concentrates, as well as other essential oil and phytomedicinal extracts, into a wide range of plant-based branded and wholesale health and wellness products.”

Founded in 1988 by Jayne and Tony Ball under the name Bridge Farm Nurseries, today Bridge Farm Group uses the most innovative techniques to grow world-class plants, flowers, and produce to supply to retail and wholesale customers around the world. The Ball’s son David took the reins of the company in 2010 until its sale to Sundial in 2019.

Over the past two years the company has invested £45 million (US$55 million) to develop its state-of-the-art glasshouse facilities and new flagship site at Clay Lake in Spalding, Lincolnshire. This 2 million square-foot site is the industry’s most advanced and highly automated glasshouse, positioning Bridge Farm as a holistically sustainable grower using biomass heating, rainwater harvesting, and robotic transplanting and spacing machines.

With licenses in the UK for the cultivation of low-THC (hemp) cannabis, and an R&D license in the UK for high-THC (medical) cannabis, Bridge Farm Group remains focused on regenerative health and wellness products, and on supplying the best branded plant-based medicinal offerings to end consumers on a global scale.

“Bridge Farm represents not only a company with deep ties to its community, its vendors, its customers, and its employees, but also an organization that is wholly-focused on driving principles of inclusion, developing and implementing regenerative business practices, and providing health and wellness leadership for a better society today and into the future,” said Ball. “These values are what we hold close at Artemis and we are delighted that through this transaction we are able to provide stability to the company and a platform for its growth.”

Industry-wide, Bridge Farm Group has been broadly recognized, winning the overall UK Grower of the Year at the Grower of the Year Awards 2017; the prestigious FPC Supermarket Floral and Plant Supplier of the Year 2019; the Protected Ornamentals Grower of the Year award at the Horticulture Week Business Awards in 2019; and the High-Growth Business of the Year.

This deal now brings Bridge Farm Group under the umbrella of Artemis Growth Partners – an alternative asset manager founded by a team of professional investors, operators, and advisors with a focus on ESG and impact investment strategies in the global cannabis industry spanning North and South America, the Caribbean, the UK, Europe, Israel, and China.

With more than $200 million in AUM, Artemis Growth deploys capital across the cannabis value chain including branded products, distributors, value-added service providers, ancillary operators, and science-driven R&D platforms. And Bridge Farm Group will now join a portfolio that includes Aureum A/S, CBVIT, NOBL Group, and PhytoPūr Bio in Europe, as well as U.S. and international companies Caliva, Central Coast Agriculture/Raw Garden, Clever Leaves, Flow Kana, FLOWER CO., Green Thumb Inc., iCAN, Jacana, Kiva Confections, Medcolcanna, Pax, Phylos, Plant People, and Think BIG.

– Lynda Kiernan is Editor with GAI Media and daily contributor to the GAI News and Agtech Intel platforms. If you would like to submit a contribution for consideration, please contact Ms. Kiernan at lkiernan@globalaginvesting.com.