UK Business Succession Index

Food & Beverage Manufacturing: business succession in the UK

2,024 UK food & beverage manufacturing companies (32.7%) have a director aged 60 or over.

0.3 points above the all-trades average of 32.4%.

Companies measured6,185
Director aged 60+2,024
Exposure rate32.7%
Companies House register·Measured base 3,631,842·Data as at 11 October 2026·Full methodology
6,185
Companies measured
2,024
With a director 60+
745
With a director 70+
32.7%
Exposure rate

Of the 2,024 with a director over 60, 184 score 50 or higher on business quality. That figure is an output of our own scoring model, not a Companies House figure. How we score it.

Food & Beverage Manufacturing by region

RegionCompanies60+Rate
South West53221540.4%
East Midlands37715240.3%
Scotland37114238.3%
East of England62122636.4%
Yorkshire & The Humber45016135.8%
North West51018035.3%
West Midlands51617734.3%
South East74122930.9%
London1,53332421.1%

Combinations with fewer than 250 measured companies are not listed separately. They are still counted in every total on this page.

Next step

This page counts director ages across the whole register. If you are looking to buy rather than to research, our Manufacturing pages go further: we score each company on business quality and exit timing, and shortlist the ones worth approaching.

See UK Manufacturing →

Part of the UK Business Succession Index.

Cite this page

These figures are free to quote and reproduce, including in commercial work, with attribution to ExitRadar and a link to this page.

ExitRadar, "Food & Beverage Manufacturing: business succession in the UK", UK Business Succession Index, 11 October 2026. https://www.exitradar.co.uk/succession/mfg-food/

Need a cut that is not published here, such as a different trade grouping, a finer geography or the underlying distribution? Get in touch and we will usually provide it. Methodology.

Method. Figures cover the 3,631,842 active UK companies where Companies House records an age bracket for at least one serving director (94.0% of the 3,863,328 companies on the active register). A company counts as succession-exposed when its oldest serving director is 60 or over. We do not use the board average, which would hide a 70-year-old founder sitting alongside younger co-directors. The business-quality figure covers only the subset our model assesses; see the methodology for why that is far smaller than the number with filed accounts. Data as at 11 October 2026; updated quarterly, next update January 2027. Full methodology.