GrowUp Group Limited (“the Company”) has sold its entire shareholding in GrowUp Farms Limited, a market-leading vertical farming business, by a pre-packaged transaction to Sun Capital Limited.
B Corp-certified GrowUp Farms produce the equivalent of 1,000 acres of grade 1 farmland from its flagship site in Sandwich, Kent, supplying high quality leafy greens to many of the largest food retailers in the UK.
The GrowUp Group, which was established to build and scale the GrowUp Farms business, had been working with its advisers to explore investment options that could support its continued operations.
In the absence of capital raise solutions capable of supporting the immediate growth of the business, partly testament to the challenging investment landscape in Controlled Environment Agriculture (“CEA”), the Company decided to pursue a sale of its shareholding interest in GrowUp Farms, along with the associated brand, intellectual property and other assets.
Consequently, Richard Harrison and Ryan Grant were appointed Joint Administrators to GrowUp Group Limited on 16 December 2025. Immediately following their appointment, the Joint Administrators sold GrowUp Farms and relevant assets of the Company to Sycamore Midco 2 Limited, a company newly incorporated by Sun Capital. The deal will see the transfer of 12 employees to the buyer. Regrettably, the remaining 30 staff have been made redundant. A team from Interpath will provide support to impacted employees, providing guidance on making the appropriate applications to the Redundancy Payments Office.
The operations and 83 employees of GrowUp Farms Limited remain and will continue as normal.
Rick Harrison, Managing Director at Interpath and Joint Administrator, said: “The investment landscape within controlled environment agriculture has been difficult, with notable challenges in the sector in the UK. This meant that an equity raise for GrowUp, as it built scale and profitability, was difficult. Against this backdrop, we are we are pleased to have secured a transaction that places GrowUp Farms under new ownership and with fresh investment. We wish the new owners every success as they take the business forward.”
Thomas Swiers, Director at Interpath and Food and Drink sector lead, said: “GrowUp Farms has been held up as one of the most credible vertical farming operations in the world, alongside other industry leaders in Europe and the US. The sale of the farming operation underlines that and is supported by UK retailers' desire to build more resilience into their supply chains that comes from onshoring food production. We wish the business all the best for the future as it takes on fresh capital to further scale and develop its offering."
The administrators were supported by CMS Cameron McKenna Nabarro Olswang LLP (“CMS”), the Company by Freeths LLP, and the buyer by Winston & Strawn London LLP.
