Winsight LLC, a leading B2B media company that covers the food-service industry, will join London-based Informa PLC, the parent company of New Hope Network, Supermarket News, Natural Products Insider and more.

Chicago, Illinois-based Winsight, which employs 300 people, owns the National Restaurant Association Show and Technomic, a research and insights business that supports the food-service industry. Its publications include Restaurant Business, Foodservice Director and Winsight Grocery Business.

The combination of Winsight with Informa's existing B2B food-service portfolio establishes a category-leading B2B business. Informa acquired Winsight from HPS Investment Partners, a global investment firm that formed as part of J.P. Morgan Asset Management.

Winsight CEO Mike Wood will continue to lead the business, which will become part of the Informa Connect division. Informa Connect, a community of more than 1,000 colleagues globally, offers connection through events, media and research. New Hope Network is part of the Informa Markets division.

Winsight provides actionable information, market intelligence, professional events and media to the restaurant, noncommercial food service, convenience retailing and grocery industries. With nearly 3,000 customers, Winsight's solutions enable customers to measure and predict industry dynamics, drive engagement with target audiences, refine business development strategies, and create networking opportunities between buyers and sellers.

Informa currently owns established food service media brands and tradeshows and intends to operate Winsight brands alongside these to strengthen its position in the restaurant and food space. Technomic, Winsight's data and insights business, will be Informa's first insights business dedicated to food service. Winsight will continue to operate business as usual through 2023 and will rebrand as Informa in the new year, once integration planning is complete.

In a released statement, Informa Connect CEO Andrew Mullins said, "At Informa, our purpose is to champion the specialist. This new combination of Informa's existing food service assets with Winsight's outstanding media, event and data assets, provides the capability to create even more market-leading products and services that will better serve the needs of the food service industry and its customers.

"We are very excited to be bringing together such well respected market leading brands, and the talented teams that support them to facilitate the creation of even greater customer value and exciting new growth opportunities for all."

Sources: Winsight LLC, Informa LLP