The current situation with Findus Group -- where Lion is frantically trimming costs, getting rid of staff and looking to shut down operations -- makes me cast my mind back to one of my first trips as European editor of IntraFish.com.

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I made the journey up to Grimsby from London to meet with Mike Parker, then deputy CEO of what was at the time known as FoodVest, now known as Findus Group.

This was in late 2008, soon after the sale of Foodvest to Lion by private equity fund Capvest, for a colossal £1.1