Clean Food Group (CFG), a UK food tech business focusing on the manufacture of sustainable oils and fats through fermentation, has acquired the assets of Algal Omega 3 (AO3), following its fall into administration.
The acquisition provides CFG with immediate access to one million litres of fermentation capacity, which the group says positions it as the world’s largest manufacturer of yeast fermentation-derived sustainable oils and fats.
The 12-acre site in Knowsley, Liverpool city region, already recognised as a centre of biotech excellence, includes extensive R&D facilities and significant opportunity for future expansion.
CFG has already validated commercial-scale production at the facility, manufacturing two tons of oil in a recent fermentation run.
Food manufacturing veteran Bill Thurston, former managing director of Dawn Foods, CSM Bakery and CFG NED, has been appointed managing director of the Knowsley facility. Bill has extensive oils and fats experience, having led the acquisition of Unilever’s edible oils and fats business as CEO of CSM, and served as MD of Arkady CraigMillar.
Bill will lead a senior manufacturing team on-site to oversee operations and integration with immediate effect.
Alex Neves, CEO of CFG, said: “With this acquisition, we have fast-tracked our route to market, leapfrogging the traditional, capital-intensive path from pilot to demo to new build commercial plant, which can take years and cost upwards of US$100 million.
“With commercial-scale validation already established at our new Knowsley facility, Clean Food Group is ready to capitalise on the US$20 billion market opportunity ahead, and to advance its planned Series A funding round, now expected for H1 2026.
“This is not just the opening of a fermentation plant, it is the dawn of a new era in UK biotechnology, one that places the Liverpool city region at the beating heart of the new Bio Industrial Revolution.”