Devonshire Corporate Finance advises on acquisition of ÂŁ23m Lancaster based paper business
Advisers from Devonshire Corporate Finance Ltd, the advisory business of Kingston Smith LLP, have advised the owners of Connect Hygiene Products Ltd, Disley Tissue Ltd and Northwood Paper Sales Ltd on the acquisition of Peter Grant Papers Ltd for an undisclosed sum, in a deal supported by speciality finance house Centric Commercial Finance.
The acquisition of Peter Grant, the fifth largest away-from-home tissue business in the UK with a turnover of £23 million, together with Connect the fourth largest in the sector, brings further consolidation to the sector. The Peter Grant business has 140 employees and has a Recycled Tissue Paper Mill in Lancaster as well as its paper converting operation in Telford.
Marc Fecher, Director at Devonshire Corporate Finance Ltd, commented: “We are delighted to have helped the new owners with this acquisition which will, in line with the growth strategy we set out in 2009, facilitate increased production capacity, whilst entailing very little crossover of customer base. It has been a pleasure to complete this transaction in the manufacturing sector during these challenging economic times.”
Devonshire Corporate Finance provided extensive advice to the business on the deal including negotiation support, due diligence, tax and funding advice, and strategy.
Centric Commercial Finance completed the funding facility within a tight timescale. Andrew Rutherford, Executive Director at Centric said: “We believed that asset based lending could be the perfect vehicle to structure this deal. We were impressed by the management team; its success in acquisitions and turning businesses around confirmed to us that this was a transaction well worth backing.”
This is an exciting period for Connect and Peter Grant. The combined turnover of the converting operations is £50 million, with converting capability of over seven million cases and a combined capacity of 40,000 tonnes of recycled tissue paper manufacture.
It is the intention of the business owners to operate and run the businesses separately, as Connect markets itself as the Leonardo and Essentials brand, whilst Peter Grant is primarily private label.