YFM GROUP AND RBS BACK £4 MILLION MANAGEMENT BUY-IN (MBI) AT HAIR CARE MANUFACTURER
28th July 2006
An MBI team led by Richard Mears has taken control of ORE.an Limited. The Brighouse based company, which currently has a turnover in excess of £3 million, develops and manufactures full Beauty Ranges within hair, skin and body for the premium end of the personal care and beauty market.
ORE.an’s principal customer is the Jemella Group which hit the headlines earlier this year when it was identified, in the Sunday Times Fast Track 100 tables, as the UK’s fastest growing company. ORE.an provides Jemella with a full Hair Beauty Range which was formulated through Research & Development to compliment the GHD electrical styling range. These innovative and cutting edge formulations have helped to drive the success of Jemella’s iconic GHD brand in hair salons around the globe which have won celebrity endorsement from stars such as Jennifer Aniston and Gwyneth Paltrow.
Richard Mears is delighted to be in charge of ORE.an. "Over the last year I’ve been looking for an opportunity to buy a company that has real growth potential in a sector where I’ve already got a track record. ORE.an is unique within the sector and fitted the bill perfectly. With a great deal of help from my financial adviser, Kevin Gregory at Hawsons, we’ve been able to agree terms with ORE.an’s former owner-managers and to secure the financial backing we needed to complete the acquisition."
Kevin Gregory points to the calibre of the new management. "Richard and his MBI colleagues, Jayne Fawcett and Ruth Fenwick, have a wealth of experience collectively spanning 45 years in the hair, skin and body care sectors. The team are well known to Jemella – a big plus point in talking to potential financial backers. I’m pleased to say that YFM Group and RBS seized the opportunity to provide the equity and the debt funding required".
Ruth and Jayne are looking forward to a very bright future with ORE.an. "We are thrilled to be driving an unrivalled ethical business strategy that cares for entrepreneurs and talented individuals, enabling them to realise their dreams and see them turned into reality. We believe ORE.an’s facilities are uniquely designed to cater for the demands of both small and large customers. We will be delivering through R & D, market knowledge and very close relationships with our partners efficacious Beauty Regimes for hair, skin and body, to be marketed through high class outlets".
At YFM Group Mark Hunter led the £250,000 Yorkshire and Humber Equity Fund investment in ORE.an. "Over the last few years ORE.an has forged a close working relationship with Jemella in the development of new products. The involvement of Jayne Fawcett and Ruth Fenwick will strengthen the ties and at the same time give ORE.an the in-house skills to develop new proprietary products, aiming at premium niche Skin and Body Care sectors that can be sold over the internet or through high class retail outlets".
The Royal Bank of Scotland ("RBS") provided term loan facilities and RBS Invoice Finance have supplied invoice discounting for the management buy in. Steve Ward Associate Director, Leveraged Debt Solutions team represented RBS and Graham Nind from RBS Invoice Finance.
Steve Ward, Associate Director at RBS said: "The new management team at Ore.an have considerable experience in this sector and have demonstrated their commitment to working with customers. The business has the capacity to innovate and manufacturing facilities that are flexible enough to cater for small batch and rapid turnaround production. We are delighted to help the management team enter this new and exciting period of growth".
In completing the MBI the new management team, YFM Group and RBS took legal advice from , respectively, John Hamer of Walker Morris, Derek Rodgers of Gardner Leader and Ian Worthington of HLW.