By Scott Wright

A SCOTTISH software company that supplies management systems to major players in the catering industry has been sold in a “multi-million-pound” deal.

Spoonfed, which counts global contract caterers and restaurant chains in the UK, US and western Europe among its customers, has been acquired by 365 Retail Markets, a major US technology firm. It declared the deal would provide the company with the resources and capital to “realise its full potential”, notably in the US and Europe.

Murray McNicol and Wille Biggart, who founded Spoonfed in 2013, will remain with the business as advisers further to the sale, along with software specialist Steven Wojciechowski.

Mr McNicol and Mr Biggart received undisclosed windfalls from the sale and have rolled over part of those gains into the new owner.

But the deal marks the exit for backers Equity Gap and Scottish Enterprise.

Mr McNicol said: “It’s a cliché but it’s been a roller-coaster ride; the Covid-19 pandemic, in particular, hit the workplace catering industry really hard. This is an unsung sector, which works tirelessly in serving their customers.

“We, at Spoonfed, with great support from our investors, doubled down, working hard to develop the right solutions to help caterers emerge in good shape to face the new catering landscape.”

“It’s terrific that Joe Hessling and the 365 Retail Markets team have recognized the efforts of our whole team and we are delighted to work with them to help build on the success of their outstanding self-serve product suite.”

New owner 365 Retail Markets provides a suite of self-service technologies to foodservice operators, payment processing and point-of-sale hardware. It is backed by US-based Providence Equity Partners and original investor McCarthy Capital. The Spoonfed systems will become part of the broader 356 product portfolio.

Mr Biggart said: “It’s been a real challenge to build it from that original idea and we certainly could not have done this without our backers from Equity Gap and Scottish Enterprise and of course our great and hard-working teams based in Glasgow, Scotland and Denver, Colorado. We are excited to be joining 365 as part of the next stage of our growth trajectory.”