Gresham backs Johnson Clothing in £82.5m buyout

Gresham has backed the management buyout of corporate wear provider Johnson Clothing Ltd (JCL) in a deal valuing the company at £82.5m. The investor has taken a majority stake and the management team will hold the balance of the equity.

Lloyds TSB, Barclays, Royal Bank of Scotland and HSBC supplied a senior package alongside additional working capital facilities. The business will be renamed Dimensions Clothing. Gresham supported the £14.6m management buyout of Dimensions Corporatewear from Johnson Service Group (JSG) in December 2000, (15 January 2001, page 55). It later sold Dimensions back to JSG in July 2004 for a total consideration of around £27.4m (9 August 2004, page 33), with JSG then building around this core brand and completing a number of strategic acquisitions to create JCL.

Gresham partner Paul Franks cited the strong branding and management team as the main attractions of the deal. "The business has a very good market position and there are some opportunities that we will be looking to exploit, particularly in the public sector, although we may also target some bolt-on acquisitions in the future," he added.

JCL, based in Castle Donnington, supplies corporate wear products to the retail, finance and healthcare sectors and to public bodies such as the Ambulance Service and the Police. The business employs about 600 staff and generates annual turnover of around £75m.

The Gresham team on the deal comprised Simon Inchley, Paul Franks, Mitch Titley and Andy Tupholme, with Inchley joining the board alongside Ken Lawrence. Working on the debt package were Andy Taylor and Paul Whitehouse for Lloyds TSB, Ian Tetsill and Tom Bird for Barclays, Jamie Callaghan for Royal Bank of Scotland and Steve Hewes and Graham Young for HSBC. (Page 40).

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