Archived News

Key Capital Partners (“KCP”) has provided expansion financing to specialist additive masterbatch manufacturer, Wells Plastics (“Wells”), taking a significant minority stake in the company in a multi-million pound management buy-out (MBO) transaction.

High end fitted furniture company, Neville Johnson, has expanded its portfolio with the recent acquisition of Tom Howley Bespoke Furniture. The deal will see Manchester-based Neville Johnson enter the fitted kitchen market for the first time.

Tom Howley trades out of three showrooms in Altrincham, Alderley Edge and Esher in Surrey. It has a modern manufacturing facility in Glossop and currently has 32 employees, including its three directors.

Independent private equity house, Key Capital Partners (“KCP”), has demonstrated its ongoing support for portfolio company, Fly53, with a £1m follow-on investment in the fast-growing street fashion business.

Since KCP backed the £3.6m buy-in management buy-out (BIMBO) of Worcester-based Fly53 in March 2009, the company has increased online sales revenues by 200 per cent, and recently recorded a year-on-year uplift in Spring/Summer wholesale sales of more than 20 per cent. In the past two months Fly53 has opened four more concessions outlets in House Fraser, bringing the total to seven.

Key Capital Partners (“KCP”), the UK-based private equity firm founded to address the ‘equity gap’, has appointed former ISIS Equity Partners (“ISIS”) director, Andy Gregory, as a partner in its North of England team.

Andy joins KCP with a specific remit to enhance the firm’s presence in the North West. Bringing more than 12 years’ experience of private equity investing in the region, Andy will work closely with founder partner, Peter Armitage, and investment director, Mark Buttler, who led KCP’s secondary buyout of Manchester-based Neville Johnson and, more recently, the management buyout of Scunthorpe-based TSC Foods.

Before joining KCP, Andy took a year’s sabbatical following six years at ISIS. During his time at ISIS, he helped to establish the firm’s Manchester office, led investments across the North of England, in businesses such as Americana, Boldon James and Reed & MacKay, and sat on the investment committee. He also directed a national sector focus on IT and was instrumental in completing seven successful investments in the industry.

Prior to that, Andy spent time in the Manchester offices of Royal Bank Development Capital, NatWest Equity Partners (now Bridgepoint Capital) and Royal Bank of Scotland Acquisition Finance (now Leveraged Finance). He has also worked in industry as group finance director of Pennine Retail Systems, a UK software business specialising in the provision of IT systems to retailers, where he participated in a highly successful BIMBO backed by NatWest Equity Partners. Andy started his career as a graduate trainee at Arthur Andersen in Manchester, where he worked in audit and then corporate finance.

Andy said: “I had been keen to return to private equity and, from the outset, it was clear that KCP and I were a good fit. The team is extremely hands-on and focused on investing in businesses with the potential for strong organic and acquisitive growth. I look forward to working alongside them to further develop the firm’s profile in the North West and support businesses that may have disappeared off the radar screens of other private equity houses as they have raised ever larger funds.”

Peter Armitage, founding partner at Key Capital Partners, said: “Andy has been a prominent figure in the North West private equity market since the early nineties and is exceptionally well integrated within the region’s business and professional communities. With such a strong track record and experience in private equity, banking and corporate finance as well as industry, Andy is a hugely valuable asset and we are delighted with his decision to join us as we move into the next phase of our expansion.”