The combined business will form a team of 4,500 providing services to over 400 operations across the UK.
The group will be headed up by HCM’s CEO, Bill Toner, who will now be group CEO. CH&CO’s co-founders Robyn and Tim Jones will continue in their previous roles as founder and chairman, respectively.
Bill Tonor said: “This merger between CH&Co and HCM Group enables both companies to combine their assets and talent and have the financial strength to compete even more vigorously.
“We are so much stronger together but although we’re now a bigger company, we’re still made up of a number of smaller, well-established, high calibre brands focussed on providing excellent food and service, and with a reputation for looking after clients and customers.
“For example, we have Ampersand, Charlton House, Lusso, Chester Boyd, Via 360 and ITA within CH&Co, and Host, Catermasters and Couture within HCM Group.
“We cover the spectrum from consumer and fully commercial to fixed cost catering for some of the UK’s leading brands and organisations across the business, charity, leisure, education and healthcare sectors.”
Tim Jones, said: “Both organisations have excellent client retention records and we have a very experienced management team across our new company with in-depth experience of mergers and acquisitions, and post-deal integration.
“We’re very confident that this merger will go smoothly and both companies will become even stronger as one entity.”
Both CH&Co and HCM have enjoyed significant success in recent months with a combined £42.8m achieved in new sales and retention since January this year, including £19.6m in new deals and £23.2m in retained contracts.
CH&Co was originally established by Robyn and Tim Jones in 1991. HCM Group was formed as a result of the merger of Host Management and Catermasters in August 2014.