Rutland acquires Armitage Pet Care

Kenny Wastell
13 September 2017

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Rutland Partners has acquired Armitage Pet Care, a UK-based manufacturer and supplier of branded pet treats and accessories.

Following the transaction, Armitage will invest in marketing, new product development and its IT infrastructure.

Financial details of the transaction remain undisclosed, though Rutland typically makes investments of £10-50m in companies valued at £20-150m.

The deal is the sixth investment made with capital drawn from Rutland Fund III, which held a final close on £263m in January 2015. It comes three months after the fund invested in car auction business Aston Barclay.

Debt
Crescent Capital Group provided debt facilities to support the transaction.

Company
Founded in 1775 and headquartered in Colwick, near Nottingham, Armitage is a manufacturer and supplier of branded pet treats and accessories. It supplies supermarkets and pet specialist retailers with products for dogs, cats, small domestic pets, birds and fish.

Armitage generates a turnover of £45m, according to a statement issued by the acquirer. In the year ending in May 2016, it generated a turnover of £33.6m, according to publicly available documents, with profit on ordinary activities before taxation of £5.7m.

People
Rutland Partners – Ben Slatter (partner); Nick Morrill (managing partner); Kajen Mohanadas (investment director); Matthew Hamilton-Allen (investment manager); Sarah Hollyhead (investment executive).
Armitage Pet Care – Paul Bousfield (CEO).

Advisers
Equity – Catalyst Corporate Finance, Simon Peacock, Alex Silk, Matthew Lee, Guy Taylor (corporate finance, debt advisory); KPMG, Gareth Knee, Richard Norbury (financial due diligence, tax); Taylor Wessing, Edward Waldron, Jonny Bethell, Nick Karingizi (legal); OC&C, Tom Gladstone, David Sinclair, Tom Charlick (commercial due diligence); PwC, Andy Smith, Ben Smith (tax).
Vendors – PwC, Cara Haffey, Tom Copeland, James Lander, David Isaacs (corporate finance); Shakespeare Martineau, Richard Wriggley, Emma Bryant (legal).