A software company that helps some of the UK’s best-known businesses manage their suppliers is targeting international growth after being acquired by Europe-based, long-term B2B software investor Everfield.
Trade Interchange, based in Stockton-on-Tees, Teesside, provides supplier management software that helps organisations reduce the risks and costs associated with managing large supplier bases.
The company specialises in supporting customers in industries with high degrees of compliance risk, such as food and beverage, hospitality and healthcare. Customers include AAK, Apetito, NHS Professionals, Sodexo and Whitbread.
With support from Everfield, Trade Interchange is seeking to accelerate growth by further increasing its presence within its core markets in the UK and Europe, doubling the size of the business in the coming years.
Trade Interchange will continue to be led by co-founder and CEO Mike Edmunds, alongside his existing senior leadership team. The acquisition enables four other shareholders to exit the business.
Mike Edmunds, CEO of Trade Interchange, said: “We’re incredibly proud of what we’ve built so far. Our success has been down to customers liking our software and, crucially, liking our people too because of the high levels of service and deep industry knowledge we provide.
“We’re excited to be continuing our growth journey as part of Everfield. Securing this additional expertise and investment offers stability and continuity for our customers and colleagues, and it means we can help even more businesses to have complete confidence in their supplier base.”
James Moore, country manager for UK & Ireland at Everfield, said: “We were immediately impressed by Trade Interchange’s streamlined solution for managing supply chains, and won over by its strong and experienced team which has worked together for several years and developed strong relationships with customers.
“Bringing Trade Interchange into the Everfield ecosystem will allow us to provide the management team with the additional support, resources and knowledge that will help it to scale and drive international expansion.”
Founded in 2000, Trade Interchange has grown to have 30 employees and its software is used by companies in 28 countries globally with 10 languages supported on the platform.
The software enables customers to confidently manage tendering, eAuctions, supplier information, product information, contracts and supplier performance. It also allows customers to evidence and deliver on their wider sustainability and social value objectives by collecting and reporting on supplier ESG data.
The product has numerous integrations to popular technology systems, ESG and data sources in the food and beverage, hospitality and healthcare industries.
The acquisition of Trade Interchange is Everfield’s 19th acquisition in Europe overall and its third in the food and beverage vertical market.
In the UK, Everfield acquired UK software as a service businesses Depotnet and Fitfactory, also based in Stockton-On-Tees, in 2023. In April this year, it acquired York-based MyKnowledgeMap.
James Moore added: “This acquisition continues our strong momentum in recent months. An increasing number of entrepreneurs recognise the value of securing a long-term partner to reduce the risks of managing a business, gain access to the resources to accelerate their growth, and be part of a high-performance ecosystem of European businesses facing similar challenges.”
Everfield was advised on the purchase of Trade Interchange by Grant Thornton (Financial and Tax), CMS (Legal), and Shiker (Technology). Trade Interchange was advised by Rickitt Mitchell (Corporate Finance) and Sintons (Legal).
