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March 2025

Essor Limited

Adviser to Essor Ltd on vendor due diligence services in respect of the sale of Secret Food Tours

£undisclosed

Grant Thornton team

John Panteli
Partner

Food and beverage

Sell side

Transaction services

We are delighted to have advised on Harwood Private Capital and Growth Partner's minority investment in Secret Food Tours.

In March 2025, Grant Thornton played a key role in the minority investment transaction of Secret Food Tours by Harwood Private Capital alongside consumer specialist investment firm, Growth Partner.

Our due diligence team compiled a vendor due diligence report and our role in the project was to summarise Secret Food Tours in a way that communicated the value of the business to bidders, through relevant key value drivers and the articulation of their business.

The completion of this deal marked the beginning of an exciting new chapter for Secret Food Tours. With the new investment, the company is poised for further growth and expansion and expects more than 300,000 customers in 2025 alone

Grant Thornton used their in-depth expertise of consumer businesses and cross-border consumer behaviour, along with valuable experience from similar transactions, to help reframe our business in a way that resonated with potential buyers. Their diligence, use of data analytics, and robust challenge of the financial model, identified and addressed various areas of potential improvement, strengthening the reliability of the data shared with bidders, which was a crucial benefit of the process for a fast-growing business like ours. Overall, I wouldn’t hesitate to work with the team again on a similar project.

Tannah Matus Chief Financial Officer, Secret Food Tours